Fault tolerant integrated circuit architecture

ABSTRACT

The exemplary embodiments provide a resilient integrated circuit. An exemplary IC comprises a plurality of composite circuit elements, a state machine element (SME), and a plurality of communication elements. Each composite circuit element comprises an element interface and a selected circuit element which may vary by element type, and which may be configurable. The state machine element assigns various functions based on element type, such as assigning a first configuration to a first element type, assigning a second configuration to a second element type, and providing a first data link for the corresponding assignments. In response to detection of a fault or failure, the state machine element re-assigns the first configuration to another composite circuit element and creates a second data link for performance of the same function. The assignment, routing, fault detection, and re-assignment and data re-routing can occur in real time for a wide variety of programs and algorithms, providing for the IC to continue the same functioning despite defects which may arise during operation.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of and claims priority to Kelem,Steven Hennick et al., U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/463,040,filed May 8, 2009, entitled “Fault Tolerant Integrated CircuitArchitecture” (the “first related application”), which is a continuationof and claims priority to Kelem, Steven Hennick et al., U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/766,310, filed Jun. 21, 2007 and now U.S. Pat.No. 7,548,084 issued Jun. 16, 2009, entitled “Fault Tolerant IntegratedCircuit Architecture” (the “second related application”), which is acontinuation-in-part of and claims priority to Kelem, Steven Hennick etal., U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/471,832, filed Jun. 21, 2006and now U.S. Pat. No. 7,427,871 issued Sep. 23, 2008, entitled “FaultTolerant Integrated Circuit Architecture” (the “third relatedapplication”), which are commonly assigned herewith, the contents of allof which are incorporated herein by reference, and with priority claimedfor all commonly disclosed subject matter.

The second related application is also a continuation-in-part of andclaims priority to Kelem, Steven Hennick et al., U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 11/471,875, filed Jun. 21, 2006 and now U.S. Pat. No. 7,429,870issued Sep. 30, 2008, entitled “Resilient Integrated CircuitArchitecture” (the “fourth related application”), which is commonlyassigned herewith, the contents of all of which are incorporated hereinby reference, and with priority claimed for all commonly disclosedsubject matter.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates, in general, to integrated circuits and,more particularly, to integrated circuitry having distributed andconfigurable circuit elements, distributed communication circuitelements, and distributed control circuit elements, for transferablefunctionality, fault tolerance and resilience.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Historically, integrated circuits (“ICs”) which are configurablepost-fabrication have been dominated by field programmable gate arrays(“FPGAs”), which provide an array of identical logic gates or otherelements. In some integrated circuit embodiments, the gate array is alsocoupled to one or more microprocessor cores, for the FPGA components toprovide configurable, application-specific acceleration of selectedcomputations. The logic elements in an FPGA are typically very“fine-grained”, as gate arrays which can be connected through datainputs and outputs (“I/O”) to provide a more advanced function such asaddition, subtraction or comparison, without separate hard-wired,application-specific components directly providing such advancedfunctions. The process for configuring the gate arrays of FPGAs iscomparatively slow, typically through a serial configuration bus, sothat FPGAs generally have not been capable of real-time re-configurationfor immediate changes in functionality.

In other circumstances, configurable ICs have involved large-scale (or“coarse-grained” configurable logic elements which are capable ofsignificant functionality, such as multimedia processing, arithmeticprocessing, and communication functionality. While these large-scaleconfigurable logic elements provide extremely capable acceleration, eachgroup of configurable logic elements is typically different and requiresseparate programming to carry out its functions. In addition, suchlarge-scale configurable logic elements are not translatable to otherfunctions, exhibiting similar constraints of application-specific ICs(“ASICs”).

Configurable capabilities have also been added to microprocessor, ASICand memory ICs. For example, in memory ICs, extra or redundant rows andcolumns are fabricated; when subsequent testing may reveal that selectedrows and columns have defects, those affected IC regions are disabled,with the balance of the memory IC being useable potentially and, withthe redundancy, may still meet the memory capacity specification. Inother circumstances, some amount of configurability may be added tocorrect for design errors and other defects after the IC has beenfabricated, or to allow modification of inputs and outputs, such as forconfigurable I/O and configurable data path widths.

In addition, after configuration and during operation, such FPGAs,ASICs, processors, and other configurable logic do not exhibitresiliency. For example, if a portion of the IC becomes defective duringoperation, the entire IC fails instantly, losing all functionality.While the IC may be taken off line or removed, diagnosed, and dependingupon the damage, possibly reconfigured, such ICs are not capable ofreal-time reconfiguration and transferring of functionality tounaffected portions of the IC.

Another technology created by IBM and referred to as “eFuse” utilizeselectromigration to create microscopic electrical fuses which disableselected or defective portions of the IC, with software utilized to openor close gates to re-route chip logic to the remaining good portions ofthe IC, such as to correct design flaws, fabrication defects, and managepower consumption. For example, the eFuse technology can disabledefective memory rows and columns, and eFuse software can change memoryaddresses so that data will be stored in the non-defective portions ofthe memory.

None of these technologies, however, addresses the increasing number ofdefects which are now arising in sub-100 nm IC fabrication. Moreparticularly, as IC feature size continues to decrease below 90 nm,there are increasing levels of defects and decreased IC yields. Inaddition, while an IC initially may be sufficiently free of defects tooperate for its intended use, the smaller feature size also increasesthe probability of IC failure during operation, such as due to tunnelingand electromigration effects.

In addition, while each of these prior art technologies have their ownadvantages, such as an ability to correct design flaws and towork-around minor fabrication defects, none of these prior arttechnologies provide sustainable resiliency over time, during ICoperation. Whether defects were created during fabrication or muchlater, during IC usage, these known technologies simply cannotaccommodate both certain kinds of defects and certain levels of defects,and the entire IC fails completely. Such failure is often catastrophic,such that the entire IC fails instantly and without warning. Forexample, if a region of a microprocessor fails, the entiremicroprocessor becomes instantly useless.

To attempt to provide some level of resiliency, these varioustechnologies have simply added some redundancy. For example, multipleprocessors will be placed on the same IC, such that if a defect causesone processor to fail, a redundant processor is available to take over.In these circumstances, however, either the redundant processor waspreviously completely idle and unused, or its prior functioning has beensuperseded and completely lost. In either event, this resiliency is atthe expense of approximately twice the IC area and significantlyincreased manufacturing costs. In addition, such basic redundancyefforts do not account for defects which may occur within all redundantcomponents, as even small defects may cause such components to fail.

As a consequence, a need remains for an integrated circuit architecturewhich is significantly resilient and robust despite fabrication or usagedefects which can affect any components, without the expense ofotherwise unused redundancy. Such an IC should provide for ongoingadaptation, such that when a defect arises, functionality may betransferred to an unaffected region in real-time or near-real time. Suchtechnology should provide for configuration (programming or othersoftware) for the IC which allows such transferable functionality,without requiring the entire program to be transferred to a completelyredundant processor. In addition, such an IC should provide for agraceful degradation with increasing defects or problems, rather than acatastrophic failure.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The exemplary embodiments of the present invention provide an integratedcircuit architecture which is capable of significant resiliency, withoutotherwise unused redundancy. The exemplary IC embodiment may be adaptedon an ongoing basis, as may be necessary in the event of a defect, or asmay be desirable for incorporation of a new program or function. Forexample, in the event a defect arises, functionality may be transferredto an unaffected region in real-time or near-real time. The exemplaryarchitecture and software for the IC also allows such transferablefunctionality, without requiring the entire program to be transferred toa completely redundant processor or otherwise unused computationalblock. In addition, the exemplary IC embodiments provide for a gracefuldegradation and notification with increasing defects or problems, whichmay occur during use (in addition to fabrication), rather than acatastrophic failure.

In an exemplary embodiment, an apparatus is provided which comprises aplurality of composite circuit elements, a plurality of communicationelements coupled to the plurality of composite circuit elements; and astate machine element coupled to the plurality of composite circuitelements and to the plurality of communication elements. Each compositecircuit element comprises a corresponding element interface and acorresponding circuit element of a plurality of circuit element types,with each composite circuit element having at least one input and atleast one output, and with a first composite circuit element of theplurality of composite circuit elements having a first circuit elementtype of the plurality of circuit element types and a second compositecircuit element of the plurality of composite circuit elements having asecond circuit element type of the plurality of circuit element types.The state machine element is adapted to assign a first action to thefirst composite circuit element, to assign a second action to the secondcomposite circuit element, and to provide for a first virtual data linkthrough a selected communication element, of the plurality ofcommunication elements, from the at least one output of the firstcomposite circuit element to the at least one input of the secondcomposite circuit element.

In an exemplary embodiment, the plurality of circuit element typescomprises at least one of the following circuit element types: aplurality of configurable element types, a memory element type, aplurality of communication element types; and a plurality ofnon-configurable element types. For example, the first circuit elementtype is a first configurable element type of the plurality ofconfigurable element types, the second circuit element type is a secondconfigurable element type of the plurality of configurable elementtypes, and wherein the state machine element is further adapted toassign the first action as a first configuration of the first compositecircuit element and assign the second action as a second configurationof the second composite circuit element. The state machine element maybe further adapted to obtain the first configuration and firstconfigurable element type from a first symbolic netlist element and toobtain the second configuration and second configurable circuit elementtype from a second symbolic netlist element during a run-time binding ofthe first action and the second action. In addition, the first symbolicnetlist element further comprises a pointer designating the firstvirtual data link as a data communication to the at least one input ofthe second composite circuit element, and the second symbolic netlistelement may further comprise a pointer designating the virtual data linkas a data communication from the at least one output of the firstcomposite circuit element.

The state machine element may be further adapted to assign the firstaction to the first composite circuit element and assign the secondaction to the second composite circuit element following a determinationthat both the first composite circuit element and the second compositecircuit element are operating properly. The operational determination isat least one of the following determinations: a periodic diagnosticperformed by at least one composite circuit element of the plurality ofcomposite circuit elements; a background diagnostic performed as aselected context of at least one composite circuit element of theplurality of composite circuit elements; or a comparison test performedby a plurality of composite circuit elements of the same circuit elementtype.

The state machine element is further adapted, in response to a detectedfault of the first composite circuit element, to assign the first actionto a third composite circuit element of the plurality of compositecircuit elements, the third composite circuit element having a circuitelement of the first circuit element type, and the state machine elementfurther adapted to provide for a second virtual data link through acommunication element, of the plurality of communication elements, fromthe at least one output of the third composite circuit element to the atleast one input of the second composite circuit element. Alternatively,the state machine element is further adapted, in response to a detectedfault of the first circuit element, to assign the first action to athird composite circuit element of the plurality of composite circuitelements, the third composite circuit element having a circuit elementof a third circuit element type, and the state machine element furtheradapted to provide for a third virtual data link through a communicationelement, of the plurality of communication elements, from the at leastone output of the third composite circuit element to the at least oneinput of the second composite circuit element. In an exemplaryembodiment, the state machine element is further adapted to use a storedtransformation table having a reference to the third composite circuitelement for transfer of the first action.

The plurality of composite circuit elements also may be adapted to storeperiodically a then current state and, in response to a detected fault,to retrieve the stored state and recommence operation using the storedstate.

Also in an exemplary embodiment, each corresponding element interfacecomprises: a first memory coupled to the corresponding circuit element,the first memory adapted to store a plurality of configurations ascorresponding contexts; an element controller coupled to thecorresponding circuit element; and a second memory coupled to thecorresponding circuit element, the second memory adapted to provide aplurality of input queues for data input to the corresponding circuitelement. Each corresponding context defines a configuration of thecorresponding circuit element, and either one or more data input sourcesor one or more data output destinations. The element interface mayfurther comprise a third memory coupled to the circuit element, thethird memory adapted to provide a plurality of output queues for dataoutput from the circuit element. Alternatively, the element interfacemay include the third memory for output queues, without including thesecond memory for input queues. In an exemplary embodiment, the elementcontroller is adapted, for a selected context of the plurality ofcontexts, to direct an execution of the selected context by the circuitelement when a selected input queue corresponding to the selectedcontext has input data, when a selected output queue corresponding tothe selected context has capacity to store output data, and when astatus bit corresponding to the selected context is set for execution.Also, the element controller may be further adapted to store a currentstate of a partial execution of a first context in the first memory,execute a second context, and retrieve the current state and resumeexecution of the first context.

The element controller may be further adapted to arbitrate among aplurality of contexts which are ready for execution and to select acorresponding context for execution as a result of the arbitration. Forexample, the arbitration implements at least one of the followingarbitration methods: a round-robin, a priority, a most recentlyexecuted, a least recently executed, or a scheduled execution.

Similarly, in an exemplary embodiment, each communication element of theplurality of communication elements further comprises a correspondingelement interface and a corresponding communication circuit element, andthe state machine element further comprises a corresponding elementinterface and a corresponding state machine circuit element.

In an exemplary embodiment, the plurality of communication elementsfurther comprise: a plurality of first communication elements, theplurality of first communication elements adapted both to route at leastone first data word and to switch at least one second data word; and afull interconnect element coupled to the plurality of composite circuitelements and to the plurality of first communication elements, the fullinterconnect element adapted to couple any output of a composite circuitelement of the plurality of composite circuit elements to any input ofanother composite circuit element of the plurality of composite circuitelements or to the plurality of first communication elements. The fullinterconnect element may be distributed among a plurality of switches,pass transistors, multiplexers or demultiplexers. In other exemplaryembodiments, the full interconnect element is a crossbar switch. Also,the full interconnect element may be adapted to provide at least one ofthe following physical data links: a plurality of one-to-one input andoutput data links, a one-to-many broadcast data link, a many-to-one datalink.

The state machine element may provide for the first virtual data linkthrough either a selected first communication element of the pluralityof first communication elements or through the full interconnectelement. A selected communication element may be further adapted todetermine from the first virtual data link at least one first physicaldata link, of a plurality of physical data links, from the at least oneoutput of the first composite circuit element to the at least one inputof the second composite circuit element. In addition, the selectedcommunication element is further adapted to create the plurality ofphysical data links at a selected time or a selected clock cycle using arouting table stored in a corresponding memory.

In exemplary embodiments, the plurality of communication elementsfurther comprise a plurality of second communication elements which areadapted to route or switch at least one third data word between a firstarray of the plurality of composite circuit elements and a second arrayof the plurality of composite circuit elements. The plurality ofcommunication elements may also comprise an intercluster queue adaptedto buffer at least one third data word from a first array of theplurality of composite circuit elements and transfer the at least onethird data word to an adjacent second array of the plurality ofcomposite circuit elements

In another exemplary embodiment, the plurality of communication elementsfurther comprise a plurality of cluster queues; and a full interconnectelement coupled to the plurality of composite circuit elements, the fullinterconnect element adapted to couple any output of a composite circuitelement of the plurality of composite circuit elements to any input ofanother composite circuit element of the plurality of composite circuitelements or to the plurality of cluster queues. The full interconnectelement may be distributed among a plurality of switches, passtransistors, multiplexers or demultiplexers, or may be a crossbarswitch, and also may be adapted to provide at least one of the followingphysical data links: a plurality of one-to-one input and output datalinks, a one-to-many broadcast data link, a many-to-one data link. Theplurality of communication elements also may further comprise: a messagemanager circuit coupled to the state machine element, the messagemanager circuit adapted both to route at least one first data word andto switch at least one second data word. In addition, the plurality ofcommunication elements may also include one or more intercluster queuesadapted to buffer at least one third data word from a first array of theplurality of composite circuit elements and transfer the at least onethird data word to an adjacent second array of the plurality ofcomposite circuit elements. The state machine element also may befurther adapted to provide for the first virtual data link througheither a selected cluster queue of the plurality of cluster queues orthrough the full interconnect element.

Exemplary embodiments may also include a message manager circuit coupledto the state machine element, the message manager circuit adapted toprovide a communication interface to an external bus or an externalmemory. In addition, the message manager circuit may also provide auniform address space for a distributed plurality of memory compositecircuit elements.

In exemplary embodiments, the plurality of circuit element types maycomprise any of the following circuit element types: a configurablearithmetic logic unit, a configurable multiplier, a configurable bitreordering element a configurable multiply and accumulate element, aconfigurable Galois multiplier, a configurable barrel shifter, aconfigurable look-up table, a programmable controller, a configurablecontroller, and a configurable plurality of arithmetic logic units.

In exemplary embodiments, the state machine element may be coupled tothe plurality of composite circuit elements either directly or throughat least one communication element of the plurality of communicationelements. In other exemplary embodiments, the state machine element isan external controller or external processor coupled to the plurality ofcomposite circuit elements through at least one communication element ofthe plurality of communication elements. Typically, the state machineelement further comprises: a finite state machine circuit and a memoryadapted to store state information.

In exemplary embodiments, another operating mode is provided. In thismode, the state machine element provides for a first physical data linkthrough the selected communication element from the at least one outputof the first composite circuit element to the at least one input of thesecond composite circuit element, and wherein the state machine elementis further adapted to provide for execution of the first action and thesecond action.

In another exemplary embodiment, an inventive apparatus comprises: (1) aplurality of circuit arrays, each circuit array of the plurality ofcircuit arrays comprising: (a) a plurality of composite circuitelements, each composite circuit element comprising an element interfaceand a circuit element of a plurality of circuit element types, eachcomposite circuit element having at least one input and at least oneoutput, the plurality of circuit element types comprising a plurality ofconfigurable element types; (b) a full interconnect element coupled tothe plurality of composite circuit elements, the full interconnectelement adapted to couple any output of a first composite circuitelement of the plurality of composite circuit elements to any input of asecond composite circuit element of the plurality of composite circuitelements; (c) a plurality of first communication elements coupled to thefull interconnect element; (d) a state machine element coupled to theplurality of composite circuit elements, to the full interconnectelement, and to the plurality of first communication elements; and (2)an interconnect coupled to the plurality of circuit arrays, theinterconnect comprising a plurality of second communication elementscoupled to the plurality of first communication elements, the pluralityof second communication elements adapted to transfer data from a firstcircuit array to a second circuit array of the plurality of circuitarrays.

In another exemplary embodiment, an inventive apparatus comprises aplurality of circuit arrays, at least two circuit arrays of theplurality of circuit arrays comprising: (a) a plurality of configurablecomposite circuit elements, each composite circuit element comprising anelement interface and a configurable circuit element of a plurality ofconfigurable circuit element types, each composite circuit elementhaving a plurality of inputs and a plurality of outputs; (b) aninterconnect element coupled to the plurality of configurable compositecircuit elements, the interconnect element adapted to couple an outputof a first configurable composite circuit element of the plurality ofconfigurable composite circuit elements to an input of a secondconfigurable composite circuit element of the plurality of configurablecomposite circuit elements; (c) a plurality of first communicationelements coupled to the interconnect element; and (d) a state machineelement coupled to the plurality of configurable composite circuitelements, to the full interconnect element, and to the plurality offirst communication elements, the state machine element adapted toassign a first action to a first configurable composite circuit elementof a first circuit element type of the plurality of configurable circuitelement types, to assign a second action to a second configurablecomposite circuit element of a second circuit element type of theplurality of configurable circuit element types, and to provide for afirst data link from a first output of the plurality of outputs of thefirst composite circuit element to a first input of the plurality ofinputs of the second composite circuit element, the first data linkthrough the interconnect element or through a first communicationelement of the plurality of first communication elements.

In another exemplary embodiment, an inventive integrated circuitcomprises: (1) a plurality of circuit arrays, with each circuit array ofthe plurality of circuit arrays comprising: (a) a plurality of compositecircuit elements, each composite circuit element comprising an elementinterface and a circuit element of a plurality of circuit element types,each composite circuit element having at least one input and at leastone output, the plurality of circuit element types comprising aplurality of configurable element types; (b) a full interconnect elementcoupled to the plurality of composite circuit elements, the fullinterconnect element adapted to couple any output of a first compositecircuit element of the plurality of composite circuit elements to anyinput of a second composite circuit element of the plurality ofcomposite circuit elements; (c) a plurality of first communicationelements coupled to the full interconnect element; (d) a state machineelement coupled to the plurality of composite circuit elements, to thefull interconnect element, and to the plurality of first communicationelements, the state machine element adapted to assign a first action toa first composite circuit element of a first circuit element type of theplurality of circuit element types, to assign a second action to asecond composite circuit element of a second circuit element type of theplurality of circuit element types, to provide for a first data linkfrom the at least one output of the first composite circuit element tothe at least one input of the second composite circuit element, and inresponse to a detected fault of the first composite circuit element, toassign the first action to a third composite circuit element of theplurality of composite circuit elements and provide for a second datalink from the at least one output of the third composite circuit elementto the at least one input of the second composite circuit element; and(2) an interconnect coupled to the plurality of circuit arrays, theinterconnect comprising a plurality of second communication elementscoupled to the plurality of first communication elements, the pluralityof second communication elements adapted to transfer data from a firstcircuit array to a second circuit array of the plurality of circuitarrays.

In another exemplary embodiment, an inventive apparatus comprises: aplurality of composite circuit elements, each composite circuit elementcomprising an element interface and a circuit element of a plurality ofcircuit element types, each composite circuit element having an inputand an output; and a state machine element coupled to the plurality ofcomposite circuit elements, the state machine element adapted to assigna first function to a first composite circuit element of a first elementtype of the plurality of element types, to assign a second function to asecond composite circuit element of a second element type of theplurality of element types, and to provide a first data link from theoutput of the first composite circuit element to the input of the secondcomposite circuit element.

In another exemplary embodiment, an inventive apparatus comprises: aplurality of composite circuit elements, each composite circuit elementcomprising a corresponding element interface and a corresponding circuitelement of a plurality of circuit element types, a first compositecircuit element of the plurality of composite circuit elements having afirst circuit element type of the plurality of circuit element types, asecond composite circuit element of the plurality of composite circuitelements having a second circuit element type of the plurality ofcircuit element types; a plurality of communication elements coupled tothe plurality of composite circuit elements; and a state machine elementcoupled to the plurality of communication elements, the state machineelement adapted during run time to assign a first action to the firstcomposite circuit element, to assign a second action to the secondcomposite circuit element, and to provide for a first data link betweenthe first composite circuit element and the second composite circuitelement.

In another exemplary embodiment, an inventive apparatus comprises: aplurality of composite circuit elements, each composite circuit elementcomprising an element interface and a circuit element of a plurality ofcircuit element types; and a state machine element coupled to theplurality of composite circuit elements, the state machine elementadapted to assign a first function to a first composite circuit element,to assign a second function to a second composite circuit element, andto provide a first data link between the first composite circuit elementand the second composite circuit element; the state machine elementfurther adapted to, in response to an unavailability of the firstcomposite circuit element, to assign the first function to a thirdcomposite circuit element of the plurality of composite circuit elementsand to provide for a second data link between the third compositecircuit element and the second composite circuit element.

In another exemplary embodiment, an inventive apparatus comprises: aplurality of communication elements; a plurality of composite circuitelements coupled to the plurality of communication elements, eachcomposite circuit element comprising an element interface and a circuitelement of a plurality of circuit element types, a first compositecircuit element of the plurality of composite circuit elements having anassigned first action, a second composite circuit element of theplurality of composite circuit elements having an assigned secondaction, the first composite circuit element having a first data link tothe second composite circuit element; and a state machine elementcoupled to the plurality of communication elements, the state machineelement adapted to, in response to an unavailability of the firstcomposite circuit element, to assign the first action to a thirdcomposite circuit element of the plurality of composite circuit elementsand to provide for a second data link between the third compositecircuit element and the second composite circuit element.

In exemplary embodiments, the first composite circuit element may beunavailable due to a detected fault. The fault may be detected by atleast one of the following operational determinations: a periodicdiagnostic performed by at least one composite circuit element of theplurality of composite circuit elements; a background diagnosticperformed as a selected context of at least one composite circuitelement of the plurality of composite circuit elements; or a comparisontest performed by a plurality of composite circuit elements of the samecircuit element type. In exemplary embodiments, the state machineelement is further adapted to discontinue all activity of the firstcomposite circuit element and to designate the first composite circuitelement as unavailable in a stored availability table or map. Inaddition, the first composite circuit element may be unavailable due toan assignment by the state machine element of a third action having ahigher priority than the first action.

In exemplary embodiments, the first composite circuit element and thethird composite circuit element each have a first configurable elementtype of the plurality of configurable element types, the secondcomposite circuit element has a second configurable element type of theplurality of configurable element types, and the state machine elementis further adapted to assign the first action as a first configurationof the third composite circuit element. The state machine element may befurther adapted to obtain the first configuration and first configurableelement type from a first symbolic netlist element. The first symbolicnetlist element may further comprise a symbolic pointer designating thesecond data link as a virtual data communication between the thirdcomposite circuit element and the second composite circuit element

In exemplary embodiments, the first composite circuit element has afirst configurable element type of the plurality of configurable elementtypes, the second composite circuit element has a second configurableelement type of the plurality of configurable element types, the thirdcomposite circuit element has a third configurable element type of theplurality of configurable element types, and the state machine elementis further adapted to assign the first action as a first configurationof the third composite circuit element. The state machine element may befurther adapted to use a stored transformation table having a referenceto the third composite circuit element for transfer of the first action.

In another exemplary embodiment, an inventive apparatus comprises: aplurality of first communication elements; an interconnect elementcoupled to the plurality of first communication elements; a plurality ofconfigurable composite circuit elements coupled to the plurality offirst communication elements and to the interconnect element, eachconfigurable composite circuit element comprising an element interfaceand a configurable circuit element of a plurality of configurablecircuit element types, each composite circuit element having at leastone input and at least one output, a first configurable compositecircuit element of the plurality of configurable composite circuitelements having a first action, a second configurable composite circuitelement of the plurality of configurable composite circuit elementshaving a second action, the at least one output of the firstconfigurable composite circuit element having a first data link to theat least one input of the second configurable composite circuit elementthrough the interconnect element or a selected communication element ofthe plurality of communication elements; and a state machine elementcoupled to the plurality of configurable composite circuit elements, tothe interconnect element and to the plurality of communication elements,the state machine element adapted to, in response to a detected fault ofthe first configurable composite circuit element, to assign the firstaction to a third configurable composite circuit element of theplurality of composite circuit elements and to provide for a second datalink from the at least one output of the third composite circuit elementto the at least one input of the second composite circuit elementthrough the interconnect element or a selected communication element ofthe plurality of communication elements.

In exemplary embodiments, when the first configurable composite circuitelement and the third configurable composite circuit element have thesame configurable circuit element type, the state machine element isfurther adapted to transfer at least one configuration of the firstconfigurable composite circuit element to the third configurablecomposite circuit element. In addition, the state machine element may befurther adapted to maintain a count of available configurable compositecircuit elements of the plurality of configurable composite circuitelement, and in response to detection of the fault of the firstconfigurable composite circuit element having a plurality of contextsfor performance of corresponding functions, to provide the plurality ofcontexts to one or more available configurable composite circuitelements of the plurality of configurable composite circuit elements toperform the corresponding functions.

In another exemplary embodiment, an inventive apparatus comprises: (1) aplurality of circuit arrays, each circuit array of the plurality ofcircuit arrays comprising: an interconnect element; a plurality of firstcommunication elements coupled to the interconnect element; a pluralityof composite circuit elements coupled to the interconnect element, eachcomposite circuit element comprising an element interface and a circuitelement of a plurality of circuit element types, a first compositecircuit element of the plurality of composite circuit elements having afirst action, a second composite circuit element of the plurality ofcomposite circuit elements having a second action, the first compositecircuit element having a first data link to the second configurablecomposite circuit element through the interconnect element or a selectedfirst communication element of the plurality of first communicationelements; and a state machine element coupled to the plurality ofcomposite circuit elements, to the full interconnect element, and to theplurality of first communication elements, the state machine elementadapted to, in response to an unavailability of the first compositecircuit element, to assign the first action to a third composite circuitelement of the plurality of composite circuit elements and to providefor a second data link between the third composite circuit element andthe second composite circuit element through the interconnect element ora selected first communication element of the plurality of firstcommunication elements; and (2) a plurality of second communicationelements coupled to the plurality of first communication elements, theplurality of second communication elements adapted to transfer data froma first circuit array to a second circuit array of the plurality ofcircuit arrays.

In exemplary embodiments, a first state machine element of the firstcircuit array is further adapted provide for the first data link bytransferring a routing request, through a second communication element,to a plurality of other state machine elements of other circuit arraysof the plurality of circuit arrays and by routing the first data link toa first communication element.

In another exemplary embodiment, an inventive self-healing integratedcircuit is provided, the integrated circuit comprising: a firstplurality of composite circuit elements, a first composite circuitelement of the first plurality of composite circuit elements adapted toperform a first function; a plurality of communication elements coupledto the first plurality of composite circuit elements; a second pluralityof composite circuit elements coupled to the first composite circuitelement through a first plurality of data links through at least onecommunication element of the plurality of communication elements forperformance of the first function; and a state machine element coupledto the first plurality of composite circuit elements and adapted, inresponse to an unavailability of the first composite circuit element, toadapt a second composite circuit element of the first plurality ofcomposite circuit elements to provide the first function and to providea second plurality of data links between the second composite circuitelement and the second plurality of composite circuit elements forperformance of the first function.

In another exemplary embodiment, an inventive apparatus comprises: aplurality of composite circuit elements, each composite circuit elementcomprising an element interface and a circuit element of a plurality ofcircuit element types; and a state machine element coupled to theplurality of composite circuit elements, the state machine elementadapted to assign a first function to a first composite circuit element,to assign a second function to a second composite circuit element, andto provide a first data link between the first composite circuit elementand the second composite circuit element; the state machine elementfurther adapted to, in response to a detected fault of the firstcomposite circuit element, to assign the first function to a thirdcomposite circuit element of the plurality of composite circuit elementsand to provide for a second data link between the third compositecircuit element and the second composite circuit element.

These and additional embodiments are discussed in greater detail below.Numerous other advantages and features of the present invention willbecome readily apparent from the following detailed description of theinvention and the embodiments thereof, from the claims and from theaccompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The objects, features and advantages of the present invention will bemore readily appreciated upon reference to the following disclosure whenconsidered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and exampleswhich form a portion of the specification, wherein like referencenumerals are used to identify identical components in the various views,and wherein reference numerals with alphabetic characters are utilizedto identify additional types, instantiations or variations of a selectedcomponent embodiment in the various views, in which:

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating, at a high or conceptual level,resiliency of an exemplary apparatus embodiment in accordance with theteachings of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary first apparatusembodiment in accordance with the teachings of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary second apparatusembodiment in accordance with the teachings of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary data packet and data wordsequence in accordance with the teachings of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a first exemplary circuit clusterin accordance with the teachings of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating a second exemplary circuitcluster in accordance with the teachings of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating a third exemplary circuit clusterin accordance with the teachings of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating in greater detail an exemplarycomposite circuit element within an exemplary circuit cluster inaccordance with the teachings of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of an exemplary multiplier configurableelement in accordance with the teachings of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of an exemplary triple-ALU configurableelement in accordance with the teachings of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a flow diagram illustrating at a high level an exemplarycompilation process in accordance with the teachings of the presentinvention.

FIG. 12 is a flow diagram illustrating at a high level an exemplaryoperating system or process in accordance with the teachings of thepresent invention.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram illustrating exemplary combinational logiccircuitry for context availability determination within an exemplaryapparatus in accordance with the teachings of the present invention.

FIG. 14, divided into FIG. 14A, FIG. 14B, FIG. 14C and FIG. 14D, is aflow diagram illustrating an exemplary algorithm or symbolic netlistrun-time binding process in accordance with the teachings of the presentinvention.

FIG. 15 is a flow diagram illustrating a first exemplary re-assignmentand re-binding process in accordance with the teachings of the presentinvention.

FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary configuration and controlword in accordance with the teachings of the present invention.

FIG. 17 is a block diagram illustrating exemplary combinational logiccircuitry for context readiness determination within an exemplaryapparatus in accordance with the teachings of the present invention.

FIG. 18 is a block diagram illustrating a fourth exemplary circuitcluster in accordance with the teachings of the present invention.

FIG. 19 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary third apparatusembodiment in accordance with the teachings of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

While the present invention is susceptible of embodiment in manydifferent forms, there are shown in the drawings and will be describedherein in detail specific examples and embodiments thereof, with theunderstanding that the present disclosure is to be considered as anexemplification of the principles of the invention and is not intendedto limit the invention to the specific examples and embodimentsillustrated, and that numerous variations or modifications from thedescribed embodiments may be possible and are considered equivalent. Inthis respect, before explaining at least one embodiment consistent withthe present invention in detail, it is to be understood that theinvention is not limited in its application to the details ofconstruction and to the arrangements of components set forth above andbelow, illustrated in the drawings, or as described in the examples.Methods, systems and apparatuses consistent with the present inventionare capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried outin various ways. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology andterminology employed herein, as well as the abstract included below, arefor the purposes of description and should not be regarded as limiting.

As indicated above, one of the most novel features of the ICarchitecture of the present invention is its resiliency, providingadaptation for manufacturing defects, flaws which may arise during usageof the IC, and adaptability for new features, services, algorithms, andother events. The resiliency and robustness of the inventive ICarchitecture allows for increasing yields from IC fabrication, as theinventive ICs fabricated with various defects will nonetheless be quiteuseable and fully functional.

In addition, during operation, this resiliency may be described as“neural” or biological self-healing, because in the event a portion ofthe IC is damaged or otherwise becomes unusable, another portion of theIC is effectively “recruited” or reassigned to take over and perform thefunctions of the damaged portion. In addition, as discussed in greaterdetail below, as the functions are reassigned, new control and datapathways are also created, so that the transferred operations continueto perform seamlessly with other IC operations. Such adaptive resilienceand self-healing may occur in real-time or near real-time, dependingupon the selected embodiment. This allows the IC to continue to operatewithout disruption provided that sufficient computing resources remainoperational. Such resiliency provides for a graceful degradation ofperformance in the event of damage to the IC, rather than a catastrophicfailure, and is especially significant in health and safetyapplications.

As discussed in greater detail below, several features of the exemplaryembodiments of the present invention enable such resiliency, continuedoperation and eventual graceful degradation. First, the IC or otherdevice is comprised of a plurality of “composite” circuit elements(which comprise various types of computational elements, a uniform I/Ointerface, and a uniform control structure); these composite circuitelements are effectively interchangeable or fungible, such that in theevent of a loss of functionality of an element, its functions can betaken over by another composite circuit element (either identical orsimilar), when available. Second, the plurality of computationalelements is selected to enable the performance of virtually anyfunctionality, that is, they are computationally complete. Third,control functionality is distributed among a plurality of circuit“cluster” controllers, referred to herein as “state machine elements” or“finite state machine elements”, such that control functionality may betransferred between and among these distributed controllers, as needed.Fourth, the composite circuit elements and/or their interconnections areconfigurable, to aid in the transfer of functionality and anycorresponding routing of data and control paths. Fifth, all selectedoperations are assigned and bound within the device at the initialrun-time, and may be re-assigned and re-bound subsequently as may beneeded to transfer corresponding functionality to other compositecircuit elements and continue operations.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating, at a high or conceptual level, suchresiliency of an exemplary apparatus 100 embodiment in accordance withthe teachings of the present invention. As illustrated in FIG. 1,various parts of the apparatus 100, embodied as an IC, such as variousmatrices 150 illustrated and discussed with reference to FIGS. 2-3, areutilized to perform concurrently a plurality of functions, such as thosewhich may be associated with a typical automobile, other vehicle, orcomputerized or complex system. During time period “α”, an IC portion102 is providing anti-lock braking (ABS) functionality, an IC portion104 is providing traction control functionality, an IC portion 106 isproviding video or other multimedia functionality, and an IC portion 108is providing navigation functionality, such as through a satellite orradio link.

During time period “β”, a region 110 (marked with “X's”) of IC portion102 has become unusable, such as due to physical wear or other damage tothe IC. Such damage may be determined through self-testing or throughother means discussed in greater detail below. As ABS is a high priorityfunction, the functionality performed within region 110 is thenreassigned (or bound) to region 112, which previously had beenperforming video functionality, which has a lower priority for operationin a vehicle environment. As discussed in greater detail below, as partof this reassignment process, new data and control pathways will also becreated, so that the newly assigned regions continue to communicateproperly with other regions of the IC, transparently, as if thereassignment never occurred. Depending upon the nature and scope of thenew functionality assigned to this region, IC portion 106 may or may notcontinue to perform its video functionality, or may perform thisfunctionality with lower bandwidth or speed. In either case, in spite ofdamage to the IC 100, the higher priority ABS functions continue to beoperational, and no catastrophic failure has occurred.

Subsequently, during time period “γ”, regions 114 and 116 (marked with“X's”) of IC portion 108 have become unusable, and their functions arereassigned to regions 118 and 120, respectively. In this case, astraction control (of region 104) generally could have a higher prioritythan the operation of the navigational system, it is likely that region118 was available and not being completely used by the traction controlfunctions (e.g., one or more composite circuit elements and/or contextswere available, as discussed below). As more of the IC has degraded,however, a signal or other indication may be provided to the user, suchas to have the vehicle serviced in the near future for IC replacement,for example. In addition, as mentioned above and as discussed in greaterdetail below, depending upon the availability of target destinations forthe functionality to be reassigned and depending upon how thefunctionality is reassigned, the reassigned functions may no longerperform optimally (e.g., they may be slower or have less bandwidth), butstill perform. Again, such decline in performance is gradual and notcatastrophic, with the capability for ample warnings to be provided.

Subsequently, during time period “δ”, regions 122, 124, 126 and 128(marked with “X's”) of IC portion 104 have become unusable, and theirfunctions are reassigned to regions 132, 138, 134 and 136, respectively.In this case, as traction control (of region 104) generally would have ahigher priority than the operation of the video system of IC portion106, those higher priority functions are reassigned to the unaffectedareas of the IC. In this instance, it is plausible that the videofunctionality could cease entirely, as the remaining usable portions ofthe IC are performing these higher priority functions, such as brakingand traction control. As more of the IC has degraded, however, awarning, signal or other indication also may be provided to the user,such as to have the vehicle serviced immediately for IC replacement, forexample. Again, such decline in performance is gradual and notcatastrophic, with the capability for high priority functions tocontinue to operate, despite significant failures within many portionsof the IC that would cause a prior art IC to fail completely, suddenly,and potentially catastrophically.

The biological parallels in the operation of the apparatus 100 arestriking As in a biological system which can heal itself, such as aneurological system, in the event of a damage such as a stroke with lossof neurons and corresponding neurological function, other existingneurons are recruited, with new connections (synapses) created, to takeover and restore the functionality previously performed by the damagedneurons. In the case of the apparatus 100, in the event of damage to oneor more parts of the IC, other existing portions of the IC (circuitclusters and composite circuit elements (discussed below)) arerecruited, with new connections created, to take over and restore thefunctionality previously performed by the damaged regions of the IC. Asa consequence, as in a biological system, the apparatus 100 isself-healing, enabling ongoing functionality despite IC damage.

A. Apparatus Architecture

FIGS. 2-3 are block diagrams illustrating, in increasing levels ofdetail, exemplary first and second apparatuses 100, 140 in accordancewith the teachings of the present invention, typically embodied as an ICor portion of an IC. As illustrated, the apparatus 100, 140 is highlydistributed and computationally “flat”, with all computation performedby the plurality of composite circuit elements 260. An “action” is thetype of function or activity to be performed by a composite circuitelement 260 (through its incorporated computational or other type ofcircuit element 270), such as multiplication or bit manipulation. Asillustrated, there are various types of composite circuit elements 260,illustrated as different types of composite circuit elements(equivalently referred to and abbreviated as “composite elements”(“CE”)) CE_(A), CE_(B), CE_(C), CE_(D), CE_(E), and CE_(M), whichperform different actions and which may be configurable ornon-configurable (illustrated and discussed with reference to FIGS.5-8). The plurality of composite circuit elements 260, with othercircuit structures discussed below, as a first grouping, are groupedinto a corresponding plurality of circuit “clusters” 200. The variousgroupings may also be considered arrays of a plurality of compositecircuit elements 260, at corresponding levels.

The apparatus 100, 140 may then be logically divided into or comprisedof a plurality of levels, with this lower level referred to as a“cluster” level (or a first array), with the plurality of circuitclusters 200 then grouped through various (second) communicationelements 210 and a second channel (or bus structure) 220 into anintermediate level (or a second array), as a second grouping, referredto as a cluster-grouping or “supercluster” level (a plurality ofsuperclusters 185), which in turn are further grouped through various(third) communication elements 190 and third channel (or bus structure)195 into a higher level, as a third grouping, referred to as a “matrix”level (a plurality of matrices 150) or unit level (or a third array),which are further grouped through a fourth channel (or bus structure)160 into the apparatus 100, 140 or device level, as a fourth grouping orarray.

The various communication channels (e.g., busses or bus structures) 160,195, 220 and communication elements 190, 210, 250 collectively may bereferred to and defined as interconnect 155 of the present invention,allowing communication of data and control information between and amongany of the various clusters 200 and other IC components.

Each of the apparatuses 100, 140 typically is embodied as an integratedcircuit, and may be a separate IC or part of a larger system-on-a-chip(“SOC”) or part of a network of ICs, such as coupled to other ICs on acircuit board, wiring network, network mesh, and so on. The twoapparatus embodiments 100, 140 differ only in the location (and/or type)of the components within the various clusters 200 utilized to provideinput and output (“I/O”) to other, external or non-integrated ICs orother devices, such as external memory (e.g., DDR-2) or externalcommunication channels or busses (e.g., PCI or PCI-express (PCI-e)). Forapparatus 140, such external I/O has been concentrated within a selectedmatrix 150, while for apparatus 100, such external I/O has beendistributed among a plurality of matrices 150. In all other respects,the apparatuses 100, 140 are identical. As a consequence, any referenceto apparatus 100 will be understood to mean and include the secondembodiment illustrated as apparatus 140, and apparatus 140 otherwisewill not be further discussed as a separate embodiment. Also, whileFIGS. 2 and 3 illustrate two matrices 150, it should be understood thatthe apparatus 100, 140 may include one or more matrices 150, and thatexemplary embodiments may include any number of matrices 150, dependingupon selected applications and various design parameters, such as ICarea and power requirements.

Referring to FIGS. 2-3, as indicated above, the apparatus 100 islogically divided into or comprised of a plurality of matrices 150. Eachmatrix 150 is coupled through a corresponding plurality of thirdcommunication elements 190 and a fourth communication channel (or busstructure) 160, and each has at least two input and two output data andcontrol paths, separately illustrated as input and output (“I/O”) 170and I/O 180 (of fourth channel (or bus structure) 160). Depending uponthe selected embodiment, the fourth channel (or bus structure) 160 (withI/O 170 and 180) may have combined control and data I/O paths (asillustrated), with data, configuration and control information utilizingthe same bus structures, or such data, configuration and control may beseparated onto different bus or interconnect structures (not separatelyillustrated). In an exemplary embodiment, at this matrix 150 level, sucha plurality of third communication elements 190 are implemented throughexemplary communication circuitry such as packet routing or waypointcircuitry. In the event of a failure of a third communication element190 and/or one of the I/O 170, 180, or any portions thereof, anotherthird communication element 190 and the remaining I/O 170, 180 areavailable to provide identical functionality, albeit potentially with areduction in available communication bandwidth. In an exemplaryembodiment, the third communication elements 190 are implemented as asingle, combined circuit element having four independent up linkchannels and four independent down link channels (with corresponding busstructures); alternatively, the various channels may also be implementedto provide full duplex communication.

This use of a plurality of (at least two) communication elements andcorresponding I/O portions of the bus structures (having combinedcontrol and data I/O paths), in exemplary embodiments, is repeated ateach of the various logical, hierarchical levels, providingcorresponding resiliency in the event of a failure of any of the variouscommunication elements or I/O paths. For selected embodiments requiringless resiliency or subject to other constraints, however, such one ormore additional sets of communication elements and corresponding I/O areoptional and may be omitted.

Each matrix 150, in turn, is logically divided into various hierarchicallevels or subgroups, also with circuitry for communication between andamong the various levels, such as the plurality of third communicationelements 190 adapted to perform packet-based routing, self-routing,tunneling, or other types of data, configuration and controlcommunication. More specifically, a matrix 150 is logically divided intoa plurality of superclusters 185, which are coupled to each otherthrough the plurality of third communication elements 190 and thirdchannel (or bus structure) 195, and which further are coupled tosuperclusters 185 of other matrices 150 via fourth channel (or busstructure) 160 and other corresponding third communication elements 190.

The superclusters 185, in turn, are logically divided into acorresponding plurality of circuit clusters 200 (abbreviated andreferred to herein simply as “clusters” or a “cluster”), which in turnare comprised of a plurality of circuitry elements referred to ascomposite circuit elements 260 (or, equivalently referred to andabbreviated as “composite elements” (“CE”) 260) and other components(including first communication elements 250 and state machine elements290) discussed below. The communication between and among these variousclusters 200 is provided through a plurality of second communicationelements 210 (which also may provide packet-based routing, self-routing,tunneling, or other types of data, configuration and controlcommunication) and a second channel (or bus structure) 220. The variousclusters 200 within a supercluster 185 are then further coupled to otherclusters 200 of other superclusters 185 of the same or other matrices150 via second channel (or bus structure) 220, second communicationelements 210, third channel (or bus structure) 195, and thirdcommunication elements 190, and then to other matrices via fourthchannel (or bus structure) 160. In addition, as an optional variation,“fast path” connections may be provided between adjacent clusters,illustrated as connections 215 in FIG. 2, and discussed in greaterdetail below.

The various second and third communication elements 210, 190 and levelsof communication channels (bus structures) 160, 195, 220 collectivelyform an interconnect structure 155 of the present invention. Asindicated above, the second and third communication elements 210, 190may be implemented as known or as becomes known in the art for transfer,routing or switching of data, configuration and control to and fromaddressable clusters 200. The second and third communication elements210, 190 may be implemented as routing elements, self-routing elements,waypoints, circuit-switched, hybrid routing and circuit-switchedelements, other switch-based communication elements, or other types ofcommunication elements, and are considered equivalent. The variouscommunication channels (bus structures) 160, 195, 220 may be implementedutilizing any conductive paths which may be available in IC fabricationand processing.

In exemplary embodiments, this interconnect 155 (communication channels(bus structures) 160, 195, 220) will generally be “n” bits wide, withthe number “n” selected depending upon the objectives of the selectedembodiment. For example, in an exemplary embodiment, “n” is 17 or morebits, providing for a 16 bit data word and one or more control orsignaling bits. In addition to the interconnect 155 comprising one ormore busses, wires, conductors, transmission media or connectionstructures as illustrated in FIGS. 2-3, the interconnect 155 alsoincludes a plurality of communication elements (190, 210) whichaccommodate the n-bit width and which provide routing or othertransmission for data words (or packets), configuration words (orpackets), and/or control words (or packets), between and among matrices150, superclusters 185, and clusters 200. In exemplary embodiments,these communication elements (190, 210) may also provide arbitration orother routing conflict resolution, depending upon the degree ofinterconnectivity to be provided.

Within the cluster 200 level, the first communication elements 250provide cluster I/O, providing intra-cluster circuit-based (orcircuit-switched) connection capability in addition to inter-clusterdata, configuration and control routing, creating direct communicationlinks or connections to and from components within a cluster 200 anddata, configuration and control routing from and to components of otherclusters 200. In exemplary embodiments, a message manager 265 within acluster 200 or supercluster 185 is also utilized to provideinter-cluster communication of configuration and control and externalinput and output communication of any type of data, configuration andcontrol.

It should be noted that the selection of the number of levels within theapparatus 100 may be varied in any given embodiment, as a balancing ofthe amount of physical interconnect to be utilized in comparison withrouting complexity, for a given number of computational elements. In theexemplary embodiment, for the same number of composite circuit elements260, the use of four levels (matrix, supercluster, cluster, andcomposite circuit element levels) in comparison to three levels (withmore components per level), for example, enables a substantial reductionin the amount of busses and wires of interconnect, resulting in asavings of area and capacitance, at the expense of additional routingcomplexity.

Continuing to refer to FIGS. 2 and 3, as an option or alternative,depending upon the selected embodiment, one or more additionalcontrollers (or processors, equivalently) 175 may be utilized, at any ofthe various matrix 150, supercluster 185 or cluster 200 levels. Forexample, exemplary embodiments of run-time binding (discussed below withreference to FIG. 14) may utilize such additional controllers 175, mayinstead utilize one or more state machine elements 290 (discussed below)as one or more controllers, or both. In an exemplary embodiment, thecontroller or processor 175 is implemented utilizing a commerciallyavailable processor or microprocessor, e.g., ARM or Micro-Blaze. Theprocessor 175 also may be in a separate system, or may be integrated aspart of the die of the apparatus 100, 140, etc., and may be any type ofprocessor or controller, or also may be implemented using one or moreSMEs 290. In addition, the apparatus 100 (or 140) may also include othercomponents, such as any other circuits or other devices which may beintegrated or coupled with the apparatus, such as radio-frequency orcellular communication circuitry, memory circuitry, processors,microprocessors, etc., with all such variations considered within thescope of the present invention.

As an introduction to the operation of the apparatus 100, datacomputations and manipulations are performed within the plurality ofclusters 200, through composite circuit elements 260. These circuitelements 260 are referred to as “composite” circuit elements 260 becausein the exemplary embodiments, they are comprised of a first, constant orfixed portion, and a second, variable portion, which may be configurableor non-configurable (depending upon the type of composite circuitelement 260). More particularly, each composite circuit element 260 iscomprised of: (1) a uniform or constant element interface and control280, which is the same for every composite circuit element 260; and (2)a selected type of “computational” or other circuit element 270 from aplurality of types of computational elements 270 (configurable ornon-configurable), which are illustrated and discussed in greater detailwith reference to FIGS. 5-8.

The computational circuit element 270 (also referred to more simply asan element 270 or circuit element 270) within composite circuit elements260 vary by type and configurability; the computational elements 270 arereferred to as “computational” for ease of reference only, as thevarious types of circuit elements 270 may have functionality which isnot computational in any strict sense, such as memory functions, finitestate machine functions, communication functions, etc. For example, somecircuit elements 270 may be static or configurable computationalelements of a plurality of types, static or configurable memory elementsof a plurality of types, static or configurable communication elementsor interfaces of a plurality of types, static or configurable statemachine elements, and so on, resulting in a plurality of types ofcomposite circuit elements 260, such as configurable composite circuitelements 260, configurable or nonconfigurable memory composite circuitelements 260 _(M), or configurable or nonconfigurable composite I/O orother communication circuit elements 260 (which may provide I/Ointerfaces for external communication, for example). Accordingly, anyreference herein to a composite circuit element 260 will be understoodto mean and include any of the various types, special cases or specificinstances or instantiations of composite circuit elements 260, such asconfigurable composite circuit elements 260, state machine elements 290,first communication elements 250, and composite memory elements 260_(M), unless the context requires or indicates otherwise.

Also for example, the first communication elements 250 (cluster I/O) maybe implemented as a type of composite circuit element 260, having anelement interface and control 280 presented to other composite circuitelements 260, and having a computational element 270 designed forcommunication functionality, and which may or may not be configurable.In addition, as discussed below, additional circuitry typically embodiedas a state machine and referred to as a “message manager” circuit 265 isprovided within various or selected clusters 200 to perform externalcommunication functions, such as providing communication interfaces toexternal memory, busses and communication systems, e.g., providinginterfaces which comply with various communication and other datatransfer standards, and may also include interfaces for communicationwith other portions of an IC when the apparatus 100 is embodied as partof an SOC. For example, depending upon the selected embodiment, amessage manager 265 (as dedicated hardware) or a composite circuitelement 260 (having a computational element 270 adapted for acommunication function) may be utilized for such external communication,such as providing an Ethernet interface, a PCI interface, a PCI Expressinterface, a USB or USB2 interface, a DDR SDRAM interface or other typeof memory interface, a wireless interface, an interface to another IC,and so on. In exemplary embodiments, the message manager may also beutilized for communication within the apparatus 100, such ascommunication between clusters 200 and communication between statemachine elements 290, as discussed in greater detail below, such as forconfiguration and control messaging.

In other exemplary embodiments, external communication (such as forDDR-2, PCI, PCI-e) is provided by other components coupled to theinterconnect 155, and the message manager circuit 265 provides forinterfacing between stream-based communication within a supercluster 185and/or cluster 200 and packet-based communication on the interconnectionnetworks 220, 195, 160, 170, 180, essentially replacing the first and/orsecond communication elements 250, 210, such as in supercluster 185C andcluster 200C embodiments. In this embodiment, the message managercircuit 265 may also be implemented as a finite state machine or as astate machine in conjunction with various combinational logic gates, andthe message manager circuit 265 processes three kinds of messages:incoming messages, outgoing acknowledgements, and outgoing messages, allvia interconnect 155. Two types of messages are utilized, Data Writemessages, and Data Copy messages. Data Write messages cause the payloaddata in the message to be written to an address specified in themessage. Data Write messages, for example, may be user task writes,writes to second memory element 255, or writes over theconfiguration/control bus 285, such as for writing to the SME 290 andmodifying SME 290 executable code, or writes to configure any compositecircuit element 260 within a cluster 200. In this embodiment, also forexample, the message manager circuit 265 may write to the SME 290, toprovide SME 290 control. Data Copy messages cause a Data Write messageto be sent from a specified source address to a specified destinationaddress. Outgoing acknowledgements are generated by the message managercircuit 265 in response to an incoming Data Write message requesting areply, and are themselves Data Write messages. Outgoing messages areassembled in the second memory element 255 (e.g., cluster 200 RAM) bythe SME 290 and are then transmitted by the message manager circuit 265,such as by setting a pointer to the start of the message and specifyingthe message size. The message assembly may be applicable to outgoingmessages which do not require acknowledgment or extended to those whichdo require acknowledgment.

In an exemplary embodiment, the second memory element 255 formingcluster 200 RAM is implemented as eight 1K times 16 blocks, with addressgenerators provided within the memory-type composite circuit element 260_(M), rather than use of the SME 290 for address generation. Anadditional register is also utilized, which if set, reserves thememory-type composite circuit element 260 _(M) for use by the SME 290,such as for storing instruction sets, and which if not set, enables useby other composite circuit elements 260. Address generation may include,for example, FIFO, block read/write (including counting and striding),and 2-D or 3-D address generation. The second memory element 255 alsocould be a hierarchical memory with or without paged or cached memorystructures. Priority for data input into the second memory element 255is typically the message manager circuit 265, to avoid data back ups onthe interconnect 155, the memory-type composite circuit element 260_(M), followed by the SME 290. The memory-type composite circuit element260 _(M) has additional features, such as being synchronous, and furtherallowing multiple processes/contexts to execute simultaneously (as longas there is no data collision).

In another exemplary embodiment, the message manager circuit 265 is alsoconfigured or adapted to manage the memory-type composite circuitelements 260 _(M) distributed throughout the apparatus 100. For example,the message manager circuit 265 is adapted to provide a uniform addressspace for the distributed plurality of memory composite circuitelements. Through this use of the message manager circuit 265, thedistributed plurality of memory-type composite circuit elements 260appears to the other composite circuit elements 260 and may be managedas one large memory array.

Each of the configurable computational elements 270 are comprised ofcombinational logic (i.e., a group of logic gates forming a functionalunit, such as an adder, a multiplier, arithmetic logic unit (“ALU”)etc.) having input, output, and other internal connections which areadapted to be changeable or are otherwise capable of being modified.More specifically, each configurable computational element 270 isdesigned such that its logic gates or other functional units may becoupled or connected (or decoupled or disconnected), through switchingcircuits, elements or other switching structures such as switches,multiplexers, demultiplexers, pass transistors, crossbar switches,routing elements, or other transistor configurations, in any of aplurality of ways, to perform a corresponding plurality of functions.Each different way of connecting the various gates (or functional units)is a “configuration”, and a selected configuration may be represented asa plurality of bits which control the corresponding switches,multiplexers, demultiplexers, pass transistors, or other transistors orswitching arrangements, creating the specific connections of theselected configuration. For example, adders, multipliers and registersmay be coupled in any number of various ways to perform a wide varietyof functions, from simple arithmetic to discrete cosine transformation.In other circumstances, a configuration may also indicate how input datais to be interpreted or used, such as signed or unsigned, a constant ora variable, consumable or non-consumable, etc. Other types ofconfigurations and ways of configuring are known in the electronic arts,are considered equivalent and within the scope of the present invention.

Each of the available or selected configurations for a configurablecomputational element 270 is stored locally within a memory of theelement interface and control 280 of the composite circuit element 260.As discussed in greater detail below, each of these configurations, inconjunction with other information such as selected inputs, outputdestinations and control information is defined as or comprises acorresponding “context”. For example, the same configuration of elementsmay have multiple contexts, with each context using different inputs andproviding outputs to different locations, or utilizing differentconstants. Also for example, different configurations will also providedifferent contexts, even if the different configurations will utilizethe same inputs and provide outputs to the same destinations. Theoperations and control of composite circuit elements 260 is discussed ingreater detail below with reference to FIGS. 5-8 and 16, following thediscussion of the internal and external communication and addressingutilized in exemplary embodiments of the invention.

In exemplary embodiments, the various connections between compositecircuit elements 260 within a cluster 200, and routing or tunneling fromone cluster to another (via communication elements 250, 210, or 190),are established at run-time by the operating system of the apparatus100, for implementation of a selected program, algorithm or function. Inaddition, such connections may change over time, and depending upon theselected embodiment, generally will change over time as may be needed,as briefly discussed above with reference to FIG. 1 and as discussed ingreater detail below, for creation of new functionality, changingcontexts and configurations, changing functionality, or resilientself-healing. In alternative embodiments within the scope of theinvention, such as for applications which may not be subject torequirements for resiliency, the various connections also may beestablished prior to run-time and maintained in a memory within theapparatus 100, with the potential for subsequent modification as may benecessary or desirable.

Referring to FIGS. 2 and 3, a matrix 150 is logically divided into orcomprises a plurality of superclusters 185 and one or more thirdcommunication elements 190. The third communication elements 190 arecommunication circuitry (e.g., routers, waypoints, gateways, switches,or tunneling devices) which provide packet routing, switching, hybridrouting and switching, or tunneling of data and control into and out ofa matrix 150, for communication of data, configuration and controlinformation, and may be considered to form part of interconnect 155. Thethird communication elements 190 may also be considered waypoints orgateways, and are one of several communication structures utilized inaccordance with the present invention. In a first selected embodimentutilizing at least two or more third communication elements 190, eachthird communication element 190 is coupled to each supercluster 185 of aselected matrix 150 and to other third communication elements 190 (viabus structure 160), such that communication to and from eachsupercluster 185 may occur through either third communication element190. As a result, in the event of a failure of any one of the thirdcommunication elements 190, another third communication element 190 isavailable to each supercluster 185 of a selected matrix 150 to provideidentical communication functionality. While illustrated as separatethird communication elements 190, it will be understood that theseindependent circuits may be combined into one or more larger circuitstructures providing the same independent communication function. Forexample, in a selected embodiment, a single third communication element190 is utilized, similarly connected to each supercluster 185 and toother third communication elements 190, with each third communicationelement 190 providing multiple and independent communication pathways(e.g., 4 down links and 4 up links), such that additional links areavailable in the event of failure of one or more links. Again, in theevent of such a failure, significant functionality is preserved, withgraceful degradation and not catastrophic failure.

Each supercluster 185 is further logically divided into or comprises aplurality of clusters 200 and one or more second communication elements210. The second communication elements 210 are also communicationcircuitry which provide packet routing, tunneling, switching or othertransfer of data and control into and out of a supercluster 185, forcommunication of data, configuration and control information, and alsomay be considered to form part of interconnect 155. The secondcommunication elements 210 also may also be considered waypoints orgateways, and are one of several communication structures utilized inaccordance with the present invention. In a first selected embodimentutilizing at least two second communication elements 210, each secondcommunication element 210 is coupled to each cluster 200 of a selectedsupercluster 185, such that communication to and from each cluster 200may occur through either second communication element 210. Also as aresult, in the event of a failure of a second communication element 210,another second communication element 210 is available to each cluster200 of a selected supercluster 185 to provide identical communicationfunctionality. In a selected embodiment, these independent circuits maybe combined into one or more larger circuit structures providing thesame independent communication function. Also for example, a single,combined second communication element 210 is utilized, similarlyconnected to each cluster 200 and to one or more third communicationelements 190. In this embodiment, each second communication element 210provides multiple and independent communication pathways (e.g., 4 downlinks and 4 up links), such that additional links are available in theevent of failure of one or more links. Again, in the event of such afailure, significant functionality is preserved, with gracefuldegradation and not catastrophic failure.

As a consequence, moving from a matrix 150 level to a supercluster 185level and to a cluster 200 level, the interconnect 155 provides packetrouting, self-routing, tunneling, switching or other transfer of data,configuration and control information through a plurality ofcommunication elements 190 and 210 and communication channels (busstructures) 160, 195, 220. In addition, as discussed below, within acluster 200, the interconnect 155 also provides circuit-switched (orcircuit-based) communication, through first communication elements 250.Indeed, one of the novel features of the architecture of the presentinvention is the use of an interconnect structure 155 providing bothpacket-based and circuit-switched communication.

Continuing to refer to FIGS. 2 and 3, the exemplary interconnect 155comprises: (1) a plurality of routing (tunneling, waypoint or gateway)elements, namely, a plurality of third communication elements 190, aplurality of second communication elements 210, and a plurality of firstcommunication elements 250; (2) a plurality of circuit switchingelements, namely, the plurality of first communication elements 250; and(3) their corresponding busses, wires or other forms of physicalconnections or date transmission media (e.g., illustrated, for example,as busses or wires 160, 195 and 220 which, as discussed above, are “n”bits wide). Within a matrix 150, one or more third communicationelements 190 provide packet routing, self-routing, tunneling, switchingor other transfer of data, configuration and control information, to andfrom other matrices 150 (via first bus 160 and I/O 170, 180), and to andfrom a plurality of superclusters 185, via one or more secondcommunication elements 210 within each such supercluster 185. In turn,one or more second communication elements 210 within such a supercluster185 provides packet routing, self-routing, tunneling, switching or othertransfer of data, configuration and control information, to and from thethird communication elements 190, and to and from a plurality ofclusters 200 within the supercluster 185, via one or more firstcommunication elements 250 within each such cluster 200.

In turn, the one or more first communication elements 250 within acluster 200 provides packet routing, self-routing, tunneling, switchingor other transfer of data, configuration and control information to andfrom the cluster 200, via the second communication elements 210, such asto and from other clusters 200, and provides circuit-switchedcommunication for data and control within the cluster 200, enablingcommunication between other clusters 200 and the composite circuitelements 260, state machine element 290, message manager 265, memoryelements 255 and/or other components within the cluster 200. Forexample, data produced from a composite circuit element 260 within acluster 200 may be output through a direct or a circuit-switchedconnection to one of the plurality of first communication elements 250,which then converts the data to packet form and routes the data packetto the second communication element 210, for transmission to anothercluster 200, another supercluster 185, or another matrix 150. Similarly,when a data packet arrives via a second communication element 210, whichmay be from another cluster 200, another supercluster 185, or anothermatrix 150, the first communication element 250 extracts the data andtransfers the one or more data words to the corresponding compositecircuit element 260, state machine element 290, memory elements 255 orother components within the cluster 200.

These various communication elements (third communication elements 190,second communication elements 210, first communication elements 250, thefull interconnect element 275 and the distributed full interconnectelement 295 discussed below) may be designed to have any selectedcapacity, such as full interconnectivity to more limitedinterconnectivity. For example, instead of the full interconnect element275 or the distributed full interconnect element 295 providing for anyoutput of a composite circuit element 260 to be coupled concurrently toany input of a composite circuit element 260 in the exemplaryembodiments (with the exception of conflicts or contentions for the sameinputs or outputs), more limited or partial interconnections within thecluster 200 may be provided, such as by using a partial interconnectelement or a distributed partial interconnect element (not separatelyillustrated). Also for example, in exemplary embodiments, the firstcommunication elements 250 may provide 2 or more concurrent connectionsor routing, such as two up links to and two down links from secondcommunication elements 210, in addition to one or more concurrentconnections to and from the composite circuit elements 260 and othercomponents of a cluster 200. More connectivity may also be provided inany given embodiment, as a trade-off of potential collisions with ICarea. In addition, where less than full interconnectivity is provided,the various communication elements (third communication elements 190,second communication elements 210, and first communication elements 250)may also provide an arbitration functionality, which may be based onpriority, round robin, sequential, etc., selecting a connection orrouting for data transfer at any given time.

While illustrated having cluster 200, supercluster 185, matrix 150 andapparatus 100 levels, it will be understood by those of skill in the artthat the number of levels may be extended or decreased in any selectedembodiment. For example, a plurality of fourth communication elements(not illustrated), with the other interconnect 155, may be utilized tocreate another level of hierarchy within the apparatus 100, and so on,creating any selected number of levels within the hierarchy of theapparatus 100.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary data transmission sequencein accordance with the teachings of the present invention. In theexemplary embodiments, data and/or control packets are routed over theinterconnect 155 by the various routing elements (third communicationelements 190, second communication elements 210, and first communicationelements 250) as a “train” or tunneling of data words, thereby reducingaddressing overhead which would otherwise be associated with routing ofindividually addressed data words. More specifically, referring to FIG.4, a data transmission sequence 300 is comprised of a plurality of words(fields or data structures) 305 and 310, and is “n” bits wide. Each suchword 305 or 310 is transmitted sequentially, one after the other. Thefirst word or field 305 comprises the address header with a data startindicator. The address header may comprise a destination address, or maycomprise both a destination address and a source address (which mayrequire more than one word). Such an address, in the exemplaryembodiments, has the form of [matrix number, supercluster number,cluster number], with the number of bits utilized to designate theaddress dependent upon the number of matrices 150, superclusters 185 andclusters 200 implemented in the selected embodiment.

For example, when eight or fewer matrices 150 are implemented, and witheach matrix 150 containing eight or fewer superclusters 185, and witheach supercluster 185 containing eight or fewer clusters 200, 9 bits aresufficient to provide addressing as [MMM,SSS,CCC]. The data startindicator within the first word or field 305, which may comprise a firstflag having a predetermined value (e.g., flag being set, or other firstpredetermined or predesignated bit being a selected value), indicatesthat the current word 305 is an address header and that all subsequentpackets are data words to be routed to the same addressed destination.As a consequence, all of the “m” words or fields 310 of data followingthe first field 305 are designated and transmitted as data words,namely, data words 310 ₀, 310 ₁, 310 ₂ through 310 _((m-1)), which areautomatically routed to the same addressed destination, without any needfor separate or additional headers or addresses for each data word.Additional flags or bits may also be utilized for other purposes, suchas to designate that the subsequent data words are placeholder values,for use in synchronization, particularly for branching operations. Thelast data word, illustrated as word or field 310 _((m-1)), comprisesboth data and a data end indicator, to indicate that the current dataword is the last data word being transferred, and may comprise a secondflag having a predetermined value (or other second predesignated bithaving a selected value).

This tunneling of data is implemented in an exemplary embodiment as acombination or hybrid of both packet routing and circuit switching. Moreparticularly, the various routing elements (third communication elements190 and second communication elements 210) provide for establishing oneor more connections between and among clusters 200 using the addressheader of the first word or field 305, and reserving and setting up adedicated path from a source cluster 200 to a destination cluster 200.The dedicated path may be formed by circuit-switching or otherconnections within, for example, a waypoint or gateway. The remainingdata word (data words 310 ₀, 310 ₁, 310 ₂ through 310 _((m-1))) arrivingat the communication element (third communication elements 190, secondcommunication elements 210), may be buffered and then transferredautomatically as a packet on the switched or other dedicated pathestablished within the communication element using the address header.The dedicated path is maintained until the complete packet has beentransmitted, after which the various path elements are released forother communications. A plurality of paths may be used concurrently tosupport a broadcast mode. Also in the exemplary embodiment, a pluralityof such data transmissions may occur concurrently between and among thesame communication elements, such as by using the four uplinks and fourdownlinks previously mentioned for an exemplary embodiment, allowingtransmission of multiple data streams concurrently. As a consequence, inthe exemplary embodiments, the plurality of communication elements(including the first communication elements 250) support any selectedmode of communication, such as one-to-one input and output data links,one-to many (broadcast) data links, and many-to-one data links.

In contrast, a first communication element 250 receives data words fromthe various components of the cluster 200, typically sequentially (onedata word per one or more clock cycles) via the full interconnectelement 275, provides an address header, and transmits the sequence to asecond communication element 210 for transmission to another cluster200, generally transmitting the entire sequence as a packet burst. Fordata from other clusters 200, the first communication element 250receives and buffers the plurality of data words (310 ₀, 310 ₁, 310 ₂through 310 _((m-1))), and sequentially provides them to the designatedcomponent of the cluster 200, typically via the switching of the fullinterconnect element 275. In exemplary embodiments, the source and/ordestination addresses may be stored in any of a plurality of components,such as within any of the various routing elements (third communicationelements 190, second communication elements 210, and first communicationelements 250), and established during the binding process (discussedbelow) for each context utilizing intercluster communication.

More particularly, the one or more state machine elements (“SMEs”) 290(or other controller(s) 175 or off-chip controller(s) or processor(s))performing the binding process (the “binder”) assigns actions (i.e.,functions or contexts) to the various composite circuit elements 260,and establishes a “virtual” data linkage or routing between or among thecomposite circuit elements 260, namely, assigning a data linkage betweenone or more composite circuit elements 260, without necessarilyspecifying how that data linkage is to physically occur. The variouscommunication elements (first communication element 250, secondcommunication elements 210, third communication elements 190, fullinterconnect element 275 and/or distributed full interconnect element295), either clock cycle-by-cycle or at any given time, then are adaptedto determine the physical route for the corresponding data transfer,creating the physical data linkage. For example, via switching and/orrouting, a first physical data path or link between or withincommunication elements may be established for one instance of a transferof a data packet (e.g., a train of data words) between two clusters 200(and subsequently released), with a different physical data path or linkestablished for a subsequent instance of a transfer of a data packetbetween the two clusters 200. Such physical data links may be stored andmaintained, for example, within the various memories within thecommunication elements, such as stored as a routing table within thememories of the corresponding element interface and control 280(discussed below), with any selected physical data link determined bythe corresponding element controller 325 of the communication compositecircuit element 260. Similarly, at any instant in time or clock cycle,different physical data links may be established (and released) for datacommunication within the cluster 200. In other exemplary embodiments,rather than establishing a virtual data link, the physical data linkagesmay also be established by the binder as part of the binding process.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a first exemplary cluster 200 inaccordance with the teachings of the present invention. FIG. 6 is ablock diagram illustrating a second exemplary cluster 200A in accordancewith the teachings of the present invention. In cluster 200, a fullinterconnect element 275 (as a single or unitary circuit component) isutilized to provide complete interconnections between inputs and outputsof each of the composite circuit elements 260 and other clustercomponents as illustrated. For example, the full interconnect element275 may be implemented as a crossbar switch. In cluster 200A, adistributed full interconnect element 295 (as a distributed plurality ofcircuit components) is utilized to provide complete interconnectionsbetween inputs and outputs of each of the composite circuit elements 260and other cluster components as illustrated. For example, thedistributed full interconnect element 295 may be implemented as aplurality of multiplexers and/or demultiplexers, such as the multiplexer335 illustrated in FIG. 8 for a selected composite circuit element 260.In all other respects, the clusters 200, 200A are identical. As aconsequence, any reference to a cluster 200 will be understood to meanand include the second embodiment illustrated as cluster 200A (and athird embodiment illustrated as cluster 200B in FIG. 7), as one or morevariations of a cluster 200, and cluster 200A (and cluster 200B)otherwise will not be further discussed as a separate embodiment.

As illustrated in FIGS. 5 and 6, the exemplary cluster 200 (200A)comprises a plurality of composite circuit elements 260 (or compositeelements 260); a plurality of communication elements, namely, one ormore first communication elements 250 and a full interconnect element275 or a distributed full interconnect element 295 (also referred to asa full communication element or full interconnect bus (“FIBus”)); astate machine element (SME) 290; a message manager 265; and variouscommunication structures, such as busses or other types of communicationmedia. It should be noted that a state machine element 290 and messagemanager 265 is not required in every cluster 200; in variousembodiments, depending upon the application to be run, selected clusters200 may comprise predominantly composite circuit elements 260 (e.g.,having digital signal processing (“DSP”) functions), with state machineand/or message management functionality provided by state machineelements 290 and message managers 265 of other clusters 200 (withcorresponding communication via the first communication elements 250).In other exemplary embodiments, rather than or in addition to includingone or more state machine elements 290 within the clusters 200, thecorresponding functions may instead be implemented through the use ofone or more external controllers 175 or other, off-chip controllers,state machines, or processors. In selected embodiments, the fullinterconnect element 275 may be implemented as a crossbar switch orpass-transistors (with or without arbitration capability), while thedistributed full interconnect element 295 may be implemented as aplurality of switches, pass transistors, multiplexers and/ordemultiplexers, for example.

Also in selected embodiments, as various options or variations, anexemplary cluster 200 may also include additional memory, such as secondmemory element 255, which may be a type of queue, such as a long queue,for example; may also include an intercluster queue 245, such as a FIFO,buffer or other memory structure, for transfer of data, control and/orconfiguration information between adjacent clusters 200 withoututilizing the various first communication elements 250 and secondcommunication elements 210 (creating the “fast path” connections 215illustrated in FIG. 2); and may also include a separate or additionalcommunication structure for communication between the SME 290 and othercomponents within the cluster 200, illustrated as configuration/controlbus 285.

Not separately illustrated in FIGS. 5 and 6, each element interface andcontrol 280 also includes a memory, input queues, and an elementcontroller (comprised of a plurality of conditional logic structures(gates)), discussed in greater detail with reference to FIG. 8. Inaddition, first communication elements 250 may also include a memorystructure, to transfer incoming data to a selected composite circuitelement 260, and to address and route outgoing data from a selectedcomposite circuit element 260. While FIGS. 5 and 6 illustrate a cluster200 (200A) comprising six composite circuit elements 260, two firstcommunication elements 250, one state machine element (“SME”) 290, onemessage manager 265, and one full interconnect element 275 ordistributed full interconnect element 295, with possible additionalmemory such as second memory element 255 and one or more variouscommunication structures such as intercluster queue 245, it will beunderstood by those of skill in the electronic arts that any amounts andcombinations of these components may be utilized, and that any and allsuch amounts and combinations are considered equivalent and within thescope of the invention.

Each composite circuit element 260 is comprised of a computationalcircuit element 270 and a uniform (constant or fixed) element interfaceand control 280. While generally referred to as a “computational”circuit element 270, it is to be understood that a circuit element 270may perform functions other than computations, such as bit reordering,memory functions, control functions, state machine functions,communication functions, instruction processing, and all suchnon-computational or other functionality is considered within the scopeof a circuit element 270 of the invention regardless of nomenclature.

Within a cluster 200, the composite circuit elements 260 have(computational) elements 270, which may be of the same or differenttype, and may be included within the cluster 200 in any selectedcombination or mix, and may be static (nonconfigurable) or configurable.As illustrated in FIG. 5, the elements 270 are a configurable element(type “A”) 270 _(A), two configurable elements (type “B”) 270 _(B), aconfigurable element (type “D”) 270, a configurable element (type “E”)270 _(E), and a configurable or non-configurable first memory circuitelement 270 _(M). A communication circuit element 270 _(C) is utilizedin the first communication elements 250, which is typicallynon-configurable but which could be implemented to be configurable. Inaddition, any selected elements 270 may also be implemented to benonconfigurable, and all such variations are within the scope of theinvention. The configurable computational elements 270 generally performcomputation and/or bit manipulation and may be, for example,configurable arithmetic logic units (ALUs), configurable triple ALUs,configurable multiply and accumulate (MAC) units, configurable bitreordering elements (BREOs), configurable multipliers, configurableGalois multipliers, configurable barrel shifters, configurable look-uptables, configurable and programmable controllers, super or large ALUs(capable of a wide variety of arithmetic calculations, functions,comparisons and manipulations), and so on. The configurablecomputational elements 270 generally are comprised of combinatoriallogic gates, but may also include conditional logic structures, asnecessary or desirable, such as to evaluate the existence of a conditionor event. Exemplary configurable elements 270 are illustrated in FIGS. 9and 10.

As mentioned above, elements 270 may also be implemented to providecommunication functions, may be configurable or non-configurable, andmay provide interfaces for internal communication, externalcommunication, and memory access. In an exemplary embodiment, suchexternal communication functions are provided through the messagemanager 265, which provides a selected communication function of aplurality of communication functions, which typically differ between andamong the various clusters. The plurality of communication functions mayinclude, for example, providing an Ethernet interface, a PCI interface,a PCI Express interface, a USB or USB2 interface, a DDR SDRAM interfaceor other type of memory interface, a wireless interface, an interface toanother IC, etc. Typically, the message manager 265 of a given cluster200 provides one type of communication function, with the messagemanagers 265 of other clusters 200 correspondingly providing other typesof communication functions. For example, the message manager 265 of afirst cluster 200 may provide a PCI Express interface, while the messagemanager 265 of a second cluster 200 may provide a DDR-2 interface, whilethe message manager 265 of a third cluster 200 may provide an Ethernetinterface.

In addition, the message manager 265 may also have a direct connectionto the interconnect 155, or more particularly, the second communicationchannel or bus 220, for intercluster communication independently of thevarious first communication elements 250, such as for communication ofconfiguration and/or control information between or among the statemachine elements 290 and other components. For example, during run-timebinding, the various configurations and data routings may be transmittedto the state machine elements 290 as messages via the message manager265. As a consequence, the message manager 265 is illustrated asdirectly coupled to or part of the state machine element 290 (e.g.,without intervening or separate bus or communication structures).

The first memory circuit element 270 _(M), second memory element 255and/or memory within the element interface and control 280 may be anyform of memory, machine-readable storage or memory media, whethervolatile or non-volatile, including without limitation, RAM, FLASH,DRAM, SDRAM, SRAM, MRAM, FeRAM, ROM, EPROM or E²PROM, or any other typeof memory, storage medium, or data storage apparatus or circuit, whichis known or which becomes known, or combinations thereof. In a firstexemplary embodiment, the first memory element 270 _(M) and the memorywithin the element interface and control 280 are implemented as contentaddressable memories (“CAMs”). In a second exemplary embodiment, thefirst memory element 270 _(M) and the memory within the elementinterface and control 280 are implemented as SDRAM.

The first communication elements 250 are similar to the compositecircuit elements 260, including an element interface and control 280,and a circuit element 270 which, in this case, is a communicationelement 270 _(C), which may be configurable or non-configurable,depending upon the selected embodiment. For example, configuration mayoccur to determine switching or routing paths within the communicationelement 270 _(C). The communication element 270 _(C) provides for packetswitched data transmission and reception to and from the interconnect155, and circuit-switched communication within the cluster 200.

Similarly, the state machine element 290 also comprises an elementinterface and control 280, with its “computational” element (270) beingthe more specific case of a state machine element, which also may beconfigurable or non-configurable, depending upon the selectedembodiment. The various memories 330 and input and output queues 320,315, for a state machine embodiment, alternatively may be provided asinternal registers. Using the element interface and control 280, asdiscussed below, also provides for the state machine element 290 to havea plurality of contexts, such as for multithreading. In addition, thestate machine element 290 is illustrated as having direct access to theelement interface and control 280 of the composite circuit elements 260(via configuration/control bus 285) for ease of directly populatingconfigurations, control, and receiving interrupts, and a directconnection to the first memory element 270 _(M) (and/or second memoryelement 255) (e.g., through one port of a dual port RAM), to facilitatecorresponding memory accesses for instruction/code processing and otherdata access. As mentioned above, the state machine element 290, inconjunction with any of the available memories (e.g., a composite memoryelement 260 _(M) or second memory element 255), constitutes a“controller” within the scope of the present invention, such as acluster controller, a supercluster controller, a matrix controller, etc.Such a controller may also include the message manager 265 or similarfunctionality.

By utilizing the same (or similar) element interface and control 280,the first communication elements 250 and state machine element 290appear to the composite circuit elements 260 within the cluster 200 assimply another composite circuit element 260, with correspondingadvantages discussed below. For example, the other composite circuitelements 260 then do not need to have any knowledge that their output isprovided to or input is being received from a first communicationelement 250 or a state machine element 290, and do not need toaccommodate any different type of data reception or transmission.

In exemplary embodiments, the composite circuit elements 260 may includesome form of identification by type or kind of composite circuit element260 (i.e., type of circuit element 270 within the composite circuitelement 260), to facilitate identification by a state machine element(“SME”) 290 (or a controller 175). Such identification may be retainedin an available memory within the cluster 200 in a wide variety offorms, such as hard-wired as a ROM within a composite circuit element260 during fabrication, loaded into a memory during a boot process, andso on. Such type identification, for example, may be maintained in amemory composite element 260, second memory 255, or within the memory330 of the element interface and control 280 discussed below.

The element interface and control 280 provides both (1) a uniforminterface for input to and output from each configurable circuit element270, memory element, communication element, or state machine element;and (2) a uniform control structure, and is discussed in greater detailbelow with reference to FIGS. 8 and 16. Because each element interfaceand control 280 has the same structure for every composite circuitelement 260, first communication element 250, and state machine element290 within every cluster 200, every such element 260, 250, 290 may becontrolled in a uniform, repeatable manner, without regard to the typeof element, such as whether the element (270) is a configurable ALU, aconfigurable barrel shifter, a communication element, or a state machineelement. In addition, every such composite circuit element 260, firstcommunication element 250, and state machine element 290 may communicatewith any other composite circuit element 260, first communicationelement 250, and state machine element 290 in a uniform, repeatablemanner, without regard to the type of element (e.g., a configurablecircuit element 270). More particularly, every composite circuit element260, first communication element 250, and state machine element 290 maybe addressed in a uniform manner, through the addressing schemediscussed above.

As a first result of such uniformity, no composite circuit element 260,first communication element 250, and state machine element 290 isrequired to know anything about any other composite circuit element 260,first communication element 250, and state machine element 290 fromwhich it receives input or to which it provides output, i.e., eachcomposite circuit element 260 and first communication element 250 may begenerally ignorant about its surroundings and functions. (Depending uponthe implementation, the state machine element 290 may have additionalfunctionality for monitoring, testing and controlling other elements, sothat it is knowledgeable about its surroundings and functions). As asecond result of such uniformity, each composite circuit element 260,first communication element 250, and state machine element 290 may beconfigured, addressed and queried in a uniform manner, also withoutregard to the type of element (e.g., type of circuit element 270).

As a third and very significant result, each composite circuit element260 having a selected type of circuit element 270 is virtuallycompletely interchangeable with any other composite circuit element 260having the same selected type of circuit element 270, except to theextent of any locality (distance) constraints for the performance of aparticular computation or algorithm. As a consequence, subject to suchconstraints, for execution of a given algorithm, the operationsperformed by any selected composite circuit element 260 having aselected type of circuit element 270 may be freely assigned ortransferred to another composite circuit element 260 having the sameselected type of circuit element 270, without any detrimental effect. Inthe event of a failure or defect in a particular composite circuitelement 260 having a selected type of circuit element 270, itsoperations may be transferred to: (1) another available compositecircuit element 260 having the same selected type of circuit element270; (2) a group of available composite circuit elements 260 whichtogether are capable of performing the same operations; or (3) anotherwise unavailable composite circuit element 260 having the sameselected type of circuit element 270 (or group of composite circuitelements 260) which had been performing another or a lower priorityoperation. For example, in the event of a failure of a composite circuitelement 260 having a triple ALU configurable element 270, its operationsmay be transferred to three composite circuit elements 260 which eachhave a single ALU configurable element 270, which may then be configuredto perform the operations of the triple ALU. Similarly, the functionsperformed by a first communication element 250 or a state machineelement 290 may also be transferred to other available firstcommunication elements 250 and state machine elements 290, as needed.

The full interconnect element 275 and/or distributed full interconnectelement 295, which respectively may be implemented as a full crossbarswitch or as another arrangement of switches, multiplexers,demultiplexers, or other transistor arrangements, provides for anyoutput of any composite circuit element 260, first communication element250, and state machine element 290 to be coupled to any input of any(other) composite circuit element 260, first communication element 250,and state machine element 290, and/or to be coupled to any othercomponent within its cluster 200 or, via intercluster queue 245, to thefull interconnect element 275 and/or distributed full interconnectelement 295 of an adjacent cluster 200 (for input to any compositecircuit element 260, first communication element 250, and state machineelement 290 or other component of the adjacent cluster 200). (Feedbackof output to input within the same composite circuit element may, inselected embodiments, be accomplished internally within the compositecircuit element 260, such as through a multiplexer or other switchingarrangement, not separately illustrated.) In an exemplary embodiment,any output of a composite circuit element 260, first communicationelement 250, and state machine element 290 may be provided as an inputto any other composite circuit element 260, first communication element250, and state machine element 290, in parallel and concurrently,through full interconnect element 275 and/or distributed fullinterconnect element 295, for each composite circuit element 260,allowing complete and concurrent communication between and among allcomposite circuit elements 260, first communication elements 250, andstate machine element 290 (with the exception of potential conflictsrequiring arbitration or other resolution).

Depending upon the selected embodiment, the outputs from a compositecircuit element 260 may be switched in a plurality of ways, all of whichare within the scope of the present invention. For example, an optionaloutput switching element 380 (illustrated in FIG. 8) may be provided forevery composite circuit element 260, which may switch the outputs forinternal feedback within the composite circuit element 260, switch theoutputs to the full interconnect element 275 or distributed fullinterconnect element 295, switch the outputs directly to a firstcommunication element 250, or switch the outputs directly to the statemachine element 290. In the selected embodiment discussed below withreference to FIG. 8, internal feedback may be provided from any stagewithin a computational element 270, and the computational element 270outputs are provided to an output memory (or output queue or register)315 and then directly to the full interconnect element 275, forswitching to other composite circuit elements 260, to the state machineelement 290, or to the first communication elements 250. Similarly,inputs to a composite circuit element 260 may be provided in a pluralityof ways, such as from the full interconnect element 275 or distributedfull interconnect element 295, or directly from the full interconnectelement 275 and other sources, such as from second memory element 255,the state machine element 290, and/or first communication elements 250.

This communication functionality may be implemented based upon either orboth data sources and/or data destinations. For destination-basedcommunication, destination addresses for each context are typicallystored in a routing table of an output queue 315 (FIG. 8). Output isthen provided for the corresponding address, with the full interconnectelement 275 or distributed full interconnect element 295 configured forthe corresponding destination address. For this embodiment, when oneoutput from a composite circuit element 260 is to be applied as input tomore than one composite circuit element 260, these additional inputs maybe provided sequentially. In other exemplary embodiments, additionaloutput fan-out may be provided, such that an output of one compositecircuit element 260 may be input concurrently into a plurality of othercomposite circuit elements 260, also via full interconnect element 275,distributed full interconnect element 295 or other communicationstructures. Handshaking protocols may also be utilized, with thedestination sending or not sending an acknowledgement upon receipt ofdata.

For source-based communication, implemented in an exemplary embodiment,source addresses for each context are typically stored in input queues320. Every source provides its output on a selected bus or communicationlines of the full interconnect element 275 or distributed fullinterconnect element 295. For incoming data, the corresponding inputqueue 320 determines whether the data is from a source designated forone or more of its contexts and, if so, when memory space is available,receives the corresponding data. This source-based communicationprovides ease of multicasting or broadcasting, as any and alldestinations are enabled to concurrently receive any data of interesttransmitted on the selected data lines. Handshaking protocols may alsobe utilized, with the destination sending or not sending a denial orother unavailability message when it is unable to receive the datatransmitted (thereby providing for the source to resend the data atanother time).

In another exemplary embodiment, no handshaking or other type ofcommunication acknowledgement is utilized. Physical data links may beestablished at run time, as part of the binding process, with allcorresponding computational processes allowed to execute, without a needto determine input data availability or space availability for outputdata. Such an implementation is useful for pipelining, such as for innerkernels of various algorithms. In addition, such an implementation isuseful to avoid data stalls or data back pressure, when one data processmay be waiting for incoming data and thereby affecting data throughputof other processes. In addition, combinations of these implementationsmay also be utilized, such as various components utilizing dataflow-based operations, and other components not utilizing dataflow-based operations. For example, data flow-based operations may beutilized for operations within a cluster 200, with other operations,such as communication operations, allowed to simply execute (e.g., routeand switch).

Continuing to refer to FIGS. 5 and 6, the full interconnect element 275and distributed full interconnect element 295 are illustrated generally,for ease and clarity of illustration, to represent generally the typesof communication within a cluster 200, such as, for example: to providefor the input and output of any composite circuit element 260 to becoupled to other composite circuit elements 260, to the state machineelement 290, to the message manager 265, or to either (or both) firstcommunication elements 250 or intercluster queue 245, for data transferto or from other clusters 200; communication between the state machineelement (SME) 290 and any composite circuit element 260 (includingmemory elements and communication elements); communication between theSME 290 and either or both first communication elements 250, fortransfer of control information, queries, query responses, and so on;communication between the message manager 265 and interconnect 155; andcommunication between the first communication elements 250 and thevarious memories within the cluster 200 (e.g., second memory element 255and the other memories within the various components of the cluster200); and any other communication between or among combinations ofcomponents within a cluster 200. It will be understood by those of skillin the art that a wide variety of communication structures andcommunication media are available, and all such variations areconsidered equivalent and within the scope of the present invention.

The state machine element (SME) 290 functions as a (comparatively small)microprocessor (or microcontroller), such as a RISC processor, forexecution of instructions, determination of conditions and events,operating system management, and control of the composite circuitelements 260. The SME 290 can be utilized to implement legacy C programsand implement state for otherwise stateless dataflow operations of thecomposite circuit elements 260. The state machine element 290 is adaptedto function as a sequential processor, and its operations are augmentedby the composite circuit elements 260 within the same cluster 200. TheSME 290 also may have internal memory, may utilize the second memoryelement 255, a memory composite circuit element 260 _(M), or a memory330 within a composite circuit element 260, for storage of data andinstructions (or actions). For example, the second memory element 255may be implemented as a plurality of “long” queues, having sufficientdepth to store instructions which may be utilized by the state machineelement 290. The SME 290 may utilize any of the composite circuitelements 260 to perform calculations or other functions which will beneeded in its execution of its program, such as to add or to compare twonumbers, for example. The state machine element 290 performs controlfunctions of computations, such as determinations of conditionals,represented in programming languages using statements such as IF, CASE,WHILE, FOR, etc. The SME 290 may also have control registers or othertypes of internal memory, such as to define and keep track of itscontrol functions. As previously mentioned, not every cluster 200 isrequired to have a state machine element 290.

In addition, the state machine element 290 is illustrated as having, inaddition to direct access to the element interface and control 280 ofthe composite circuit elements 260 (via configuration/control bus 285),a direct connection to the first memory element 270 _(M) (and/or secondmemory element 255), to facilitate corresponding memory accesses forinstruction/code processing and other data access. Alternatively to theuse of the configuration/control bus 285, such communication may beprovided via the full interconnect element 275 or distributed fullinterconnect element 295, for example.

The state machine element 290 is utilized to implement a hardwareoperating system, and in a supervisory mode, has access to all of theresources within its cluster 200, thereby able to program, control, andmonitor all of the composite circuit elements 260 within the cluster200. For implementations in which one or more clusters 200 do not have astate machine element 290 included within the cluster 200, one or moreother state machine elements 290 of other clusters 200 will performthese functions and operations. In addition to task control, the statemachine element 290 is utilized in self-testing of cluster resources,loading or assigning tasks (actions (or instructions)), binding actions(or instructions) (e.g., run-time binding) to the composite circuitelements 260, and in creating the connections between and among thevarious composite circuit elements 260 and clusters 200. The assigningand binding process is discussed in greater detail with reference toFIG. 14. Collectively, the SMEs 290 within the clusters 200 function asa highly distributed controller, running the operating system of theapparatus 100 (in conjunction with any needed composite circuit elements260), either with or without other controllers 175. In exemplaryembodiments, various SMEs 290 may take on additional functions, suchperforming a system boot process, operating as a master controller, anddetermining and mapping functional and nonfunctional composite circuitelements 260 and other components, for example. The operation of the SME290 is also explained in greater detail below with reference to FIGS.8-14.

For example, the SME 290 may start a bound task of the composite circuitelements 260 within the cluster 200, suspend a task, suspend an actionor function of a composite circuit element 260 (as part of an overalltask), halt a task and free its resources (such as to load and run ahigher priority task), set a task to perform in a single-step mode, andmove a task to another location (such as to perform self-testing of thecomposite circuit elements 260 currently performing the task).

The message manager 265, in the first cluster 200 and second cluster200A embodiments, is utilized for communication external to theapparatus 100, such as for an Ethernet interface, a memory interface(e.g., DDR-2 SDRAM), a PCI-Express interface, etc. The message manager265 is coupled directly to the SME 290, and more generally, also may becoupled to the full interconnect element 275 or distributed fullinterconnect element 295, the first communication elements 250, and/orthe composite circuit elements 260 (not separately illustrated). Forexample, data words provided by the full interconnect element 275 may beoutput by the message manager 265 for storage in an external memory.Similarly, also for example, incoming data, configuration or control maybe transferred to the SME 290 (or stored in second memory element 255),such as to provide instructions for the SME 290, or transferred to acomposite circuit element 260, for use and consumption in computations.In addition, in an exemplary embodiment, the message manager 265 is alsocoupled to the second communication channel or bus 220 (of theinterconnect 155).

In an exemplary embodiment, as an additional alternative, the messagemanager 265 is also utilized for communication within the apparatus 100.In this embodiment, the message manager 265 is also utilized for cluster200 to cluster 200 communication, and for SME 290 to SME 290communication. For example, the message manager 265 is utilized for onecomposite circuit element 260 of a first cluster 200 to transferinformation to another composite circuit element 260 of a second cluster200.

Also, in an exemplary embodiment, not all message managers 265 in amatrix 150 are implemented to provide external communication. Forexample, in one alternative embodiment utilizing four matrices 150, eachmatrix 150 is provided with a total of six PCI-express interfacesimplemented through the message managers 265 of six correspondingclusters 200 (one per supercluster 185, in an embodiment in whichsuperclusters 185 are implemented identically). Similarly, in this fourmatrix example, each matrix 150 is provided with a total of one or twoDDR-2 interfaces implemented through the message managers 265 of one ortwo corresponding clusters 200. As a result, there are remainingclusters 200 which have corresponding message managers 265 which are notproviding interfaces and control for external communication. For theseremaining clusters 200, their corresponding message managers 265transfer data to these other clusters 200 having DDR-2 or PCI-expressinterfaces for storage in memory or external communication on aPCI-express bus, respectively, either through second communicationelements 210 (supercluster-level) or third communication elements 190(matrix-level).

The message manager 265 may be implemented in a wide variety of ways,depending upon the selected embodiment. In a first selected embodiment,the message manager 265 is implemented as a finite state machine andimplements communication standards, such as those mentioned above. Whenimplemented as a state machine, the message manager 265 may beimplemented separately or combined as a part of the SME 290. In a secondselected embodiment, the message manager 265 is implemented as dedicatedcomputational logic gates, also for the provision of a communicationinterface, with the SME 290 utilized to perform any conditional logic orother state machine functions.

In exemplary embodiments, as indicated above, the composite circuitelements 260 will include some form of identification by type or kind ofcomposite circuit element 260 (i.e., type of circuit element 270 withinthe composite circuit element 260), to facilitate identification by astate machine element (“SME”) 290. Generally, a SME 290 will determine(and report to other SMEs 290, as necessary) the types and contextavailability of the composite circuit elements 260 within its cluster200, for use in run-time binding. For example, for the illustratedcluster 200, the SME 290 may determine that the cluster has oneconfigurable barrel shifter-type element (corresponding to type “A”) 270_(A), two configurable triple-ALU-type elements (corresponding to type“B”) 270 _(B), one configurable Galois multiplier-type element(corresponding to type “C”) 270 _(C), one configurable bit reordering(“BREO”)-type element (corresponding to type “D”) 270, and one contentaddressable memory element (corresponding to type “M”) 270 _(M). The SME290 may also determine and report at another time that the BREO-typeelement of its cluster 200 is no longer functioning properly, so thatthe operations of its BREO-type element may be transferred to aBREO-type element of another cluster 200.

Continuing to refer to FIGS. 5 and 6, the second memory element 255 mayreceive input and provide output (be written to and read from) eitherdirectly or indirectly via the full interconnect element 275 ordistributed full interconnect element 295, from a plurality of sources,such as: (1) to and from the first communication elements 250 (for inputfrom other clusters 200, such as input of data, instructions or othercontrol information for use by the SME 290 or for queuing data for useby composite circuit elements 260); (2) to and from one or morecomposite circuit elements 260 (including memory composite circuitelement 260 _(M)) within the same cluster 200; (3) to and from the SME290; or (4) to and from the message manager 265.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating a third exemplary cluster 200Bembodiment in accordance with the teachings of the present invention, asanother variation of a cluster 200. In this embodiment, the cluster 200Bcontains composite circuit elements 260 having communicationfunctionality, such as to provide external communication functionality,e.g., for the communication functionality concentrated within a selectedmatrix 150 as illustrated in FIG. 3. Also in this embodiment, as anoption, the message manager 265 is not utilized for such externalcommunication, which instead is provided within dedicated communicationcomposite circuit elements 260, which may be configurable ornonconfigurable. In this embodiment, each communication compositeelement 260 is utilized to provide a standard I/O interface for(external) communication to and from the apparatus 100, such as DDR-2 orPCI-e interfaces. In addition, the communication composite elements 260may have additional input and output bus or media structures to providesuch interfaces, and are not confined to communicating outside thecluster 201 through the first communication elements 250. Depending uponthe selected embodiment, additional communication composite elements 260may be utilized for increased resiliency and immunity from catastrophicfailure. In all other respects, the clusters 200, 200B are identical,and further differ from cluster 200A in use of a full interconnectelement 275 rather than a distributed full interconnect element 295. Asa consequence, any reference to a cluster 200 will be understood to meanand include the third embodiment illustrated as cluster 200B, as avariation or more specific case of a cluster 200, and cluster 200Botherwise also will not be further discussed as a separate embodiment.It should be noted, however, that the first cluster 200 embodiment mayalso be utilized for the communication functionality concentrated withina selected matrix 150 as illustrated in FIG. 3.

For the cluster embodiments, because of the same matrix, superclusterand cluster addressing, and because of the same element interface andcontrol 280, any other cluster 200 (or composite circuit element 260)may communicate with the communication composite elements 260 and itscluster 201, or communicate with a cluster 200 having a message manager265 with an external communication interface, in same manner as anycommunication with any other composite circuit element 260 or cluster200. As a result, when a cluster 200 or composite circuit element 260has a communication external to the apparatus 100, all that is requiredis for that cluster 200 or composite circuit element 260 to have theaddress of the corresponding communication composite elements 260 (withthe interface corresponding to the selected form of communication)and/or its cluster 201, or the address of a cluster 200 having a messagemanager 265 with the interface corresponding to the selected form ofcommunication. Such addressing may be provided by various componentswithin the cluster 200, such as the message manager 265, the SME 290, orthe first communication elements 250, for example. Such externalcommunication is thereby provided through virtual addressing, e.g., viaa message manager 265 or cluster 200, or via a communication compositeelements 260 or cluster 201, and the composite element 260 does not needany further information concerning the location or type of the externalinterface. For example, a cluster 200 or composite circuit element 260does not need any information concerning whether its externalcommunication is with a DDR SDRAM or is via an Ethernet protocol, orwhere these interfaces may be located on the apparatus 100. Similarly,for internal communication, a composite circuit element 260 also doesnot need any information concerning whether its communication is withinanother composite circuit element 260 within the same cluster 200 or adifferent cluster 200.

FIG. 18 is a block diagram illustrating a fourth exemplary circuitcluster 200C in accordance with the teachings of the present invention.The fourth exemplary circuit cluster 200C differs from the clusterembodiments discussed previously in that its topology has a degree ofinternal hierarchy, with the fourth exemplary circuit cluster 200Cdivided into a plurality of zones 201, illustrated as zones 201A, 201B,201C and 201D, with each zone 201 having four composite circuit elements260 (as illustrated) which are coupled to a separate interconnect 275,295 (which may be full or distributed), and with communication betweeneach zone 201 occurring through a plurality of cluster queues 245A(which are effectively identical to the previously describedintercluster queues 245). The cluster queues 245A are utilized forcommunication within a cluster 200C, and not merely for “fast track”communication between clusters 200. The full or distributed interconnect275, 295 is also source-based, as described in greater detail below,with each destination composite circuit element 260 monitoring theinterconnect 275, 295 for communication(s) from its corresponding datasource. As an equivalent alternative, the full or distributedinterconnect 275, 295 may be destination-based, as described herein.

The circuit cluster 200C does not include first communication elements250. Instead, communication with other clusters 200, superclusters 185,matrices 150, or external communication (such as to a PCI-e bus) (viasecond channel (or bus structure) 220) is accomplished through themessage manager 265, which provides the additional packet-based andcircuit-switched communication functionality of the first communicationelements 250. Each of the composite circuit elements 260, illustrated asCE₀ through CE₁₄, are coupled to the full or distributed interconnect275, 295 as described previously, with 4 inputs and 2 outputs to andfrom each composite circuit elements 260. The cluster queues 245A₁₂through cluster queues 245A₁₆, as illustrated, provide communicationbetween and among the various zones 201 of composite circuit elements260 within the circuit cluster 200C.

Typically, the cluster queues 245A are implemented as multipleunidirectional ports, using any type of memory as discussed herein, andare implemented to provide several communication paths in bothdirections between zones 201 (one “hop” to any destination within acluster 200C, with one “hop” occurring per cycle, absent contention fromother data sources) or between circuit clusters 200C (one or two cyclesor “hops” to an adjacent cluster 200C, and one or more cycles or “hops”to any other destination). In an exemplary embodiment, each clusterqueue 245A provides four communication paths, two in each direction. Forexample, cluster queue 245A₁₅ provides two communication paths from zone201B (as a data source) to zone 201D (as a data destination), andprovides two communication paths from zone 201D (as a data source) tozone 201B (as a data destination). In an exemplary embodiment, eachcluster queue 245A also has eight contexts, providing eight virtualconnections across each cluster queue 245A in each direction and foreach communication path.

Accordingly, for this embodiment, cluster queues 245A and messagemanager circuit 265 are also considered “communication elements” withinthe scope of the present invention.

FIG. 19 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary third apparatusembodiment, comprising a supercluster 185C, in accordance with theteachings of the present invention. Using this topology for a circuitcluster 200C, the circuit clusters 200C may be effectively tiled orarrayed with each other, to form a supercluster 185, illustrated assupercluster 185C, having sixteen circuit clusters 200C, illustrated asC0 through C15. Each of the circuit clusters 200C communicates withadjacent circuit clusters 200C through the plurality of cluster queues245A. Such superclusters 185C then do not utilize one or more secondcommunication elements 210, and instead connect to one or more thirdcommunication elements 190 through one or more message managers 265within the supercluster 185C.

Referring again to FIG. 18, for this embodiment, the cluster queues 245Aalso provide intercluster communication with adjacent clusters 200C, andmay be viewed as a more generalized type of intercluster queues 245. Asillustrated, the peripheral cluster queues 245A provide communicationbetween the circuit cluster 200C and its adjacent circuit clusters 200C.For intercluster communication, the cluster queues 245A may beimplemented to provide one or two communication paths in each direction,depending on the selected embodiment. For example, in an exemplaryembodiment, the peripheral cluster queues 245A provide one communicationpath in each direction. Using typical geographic coordinates, forexample, cluster queue(s) 245A₀ provides communication between circuitcluster 200C and an adjacent “northwest” circuit cluster 200C, clusterqueue(s) 245A₁ and 245A₂ provide communication between circuit cluster200C and an adjacent “north” circuit cluster 200C, cluster queue(s)245A₃ and 245A₄ provide communication between circuit cluster 200C andan adjacent “west” circuit cluster 200C, and cluster queue(s) 245A₅provides communication between circuit cluster 200C and an adjacent“southwest” circuit cluster 200C. Similarly, the cluster queue(s) 245A₁₁(which may be considered part of an adjacent cluster 200C) providecommunication between circuit cluster 200C and an adjacent “northeast”circuit cluster 200C, cluster queue(s) 245A₁₀ and 245A₉ (which may beconsidered part of an adjacent cluster 200C) provide communicationbetween circuit cluster 200C and an adjacent “east” circuit cluster200C, cluster queue(s) 245A₈ (which may be considered part of anadjacent cluster 200C) provides communication between circuit cluster200C and an adjacent “southeast” circuit cluster 200C, and clusterqueue(s) 245A₆ and 245A₇ (which may be considered part of an adjacentcluster 200C) provide communication between circuit cluster 200C and anadjacent “south” circuit cluster 200C.

In addition, for data routing assignments, such as in the run-timebinding described below, rather than routing data or other informationthrough a second communication element 210 to or from a supercluster 185and/or through a first communication element 250 to or from a circuitcluster 200, routing may occur through a message manager 265 to or froma supercluster 185 or a circuit cluster 200, and by routing to adesignated composite circuit element 260 within a supercluster 185C or acircuit cluster 200C through any of the various cluster queues 245A,using either the source-based or destination-based communication schemesdescribed herein. This use of cluster queues 245A for interclustercommunication has the potential advantage of reduced latency compared touse of the first communication element 250, insofar as multiple wordsare not required for assembly into a packet train, and instead may becommunicated as they are generated. The supercluster 185C and circuitcluster 200C otherwise function as described herein for any supercluster185 and circuit cluster 200, respectively. Accordingly, any reference toa supercluster 185 or to a circuit cluster 200 shall be understood tocorrespondingly mean and include a supercluster 185C or circuit cluster200C, respectively.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating in greater detail an exemplarycomposite circuit element 260 within an exemplary cluster 200 inaccordance with the teachings of the present invention. As illustratedin FIG. 8, the composite circuit element 260 comprises an elementinterface and control 280 and a circuit element 270 (also referred to asa computational element 270), which is generally a configurablecomputational element, but which may also be a nonconfigurablecomputational element, a configurable or nonconfigurable communicationelement, a configurable or nonconfigurable finite state machine element,may be a configurable or nonconfigurable memory element, or may be otherforms of circuitry selected for any particular application of anapparatus 100.

In an exemplary embodiment, the element interface and control 280comprises: (1) an element controller 325; (2) a memory 330 (such as acontent addressable memory (“CAM”) or random access memory such asSDRAM) which stores contexts and control information (e.g.,configuration words); (3) input queues 320 (as a form of memory); and(4) output queues (or registers) 315 (also as a form of memory). Inother exemplary embodiments, the element interface and control 280 mayinclude the element controller 325, the memory 330, and either the inputqueues 320 or the output queues 315, but not both. In additionalexemplary embodiments, the element interface and control 280 may includethe memory 330, and either the input queues 320 or the output queues315, but not the element controller 325. In the latter embodiment, oncea SME 290 has assigned actions and established the data routing, noseparate or additional control is utilized within the composite circuitelements 260, with the composite circuit elements 260 allowed to freelyand/or continuously execute an assigned context.

As mentioned above, in selected embodiments, the element interface andcontrol 280 may also include an optional output switching element 380such as one or more switches, transistors, multiplexers ordemultiplexers, to provide direct switching capability for output data,such as for internal feedback within the composite circuit element 260,or for providing output data to the SME 290, to the message manager 265,or to the first communication elements 250, in addition to providingoutput data to the full interconnect element 275 or distributed fullinterconnect element 295. As mentioned above, the memory 330, inputqueues 320 and output queues 315 may be implemented as any form ofmemory, including without limitation any of the memory types mentionedpreviously, such as CAM or SDRAM.

The input queues 320 provide a plurality of inputs 365 into theconfigurable circuit element 270, illustrated as an exemplary fourinputs each having a width of one 16-bit data word. Alternatively, thewidth may be wider, such as to include a bit designating a placeholder,for example. The input queues 320 may be independent from each other ormay be dependent upon each other, such as using 2 inputs for a combined32-bit data word. In exemplary embodiments, input queues 320 areprovided for each of the inputs into the circuit element 270, with eachof the input queues 320 providing a separate queue for each contextwhich may be utilized by the circuit element 270. In addition, the inputqueues 320 may be implemented as “short queues”, having a depth of 1 or2 data words, although deeper queues and other forms of memory arewithin the scope of the invention. For an exemplary embodiment, eightcontexts are utilized, for each of 4 inputs, with a depth of at least 2data words. Contexts may also be combined, such as to implement a largerqueue, e.g., 16 words, for a selected context.

The input queues 320 may receive data from any of a plurality of inputsources, depending upon the switching arrangements, either directly orvia the full interconnect element 275 or distributed full interconnectelement 295, such as: (1) from the first communication elements 250 (forinput from other clusters 200); (2) from one or more other compositecircuit elements 260 (including memory composite element 260 _(M))within the same cluster 200; (3) from the second memory element 255; (4)from the message manager 265; or (5) from the SME 290 (e.g., whenutilized by the SME 290 for calculation of a value or comparison of 2values, such as to evaluate a condition or an event). As illustrated inFIG. 8, the input queues 320 receive data from either a fullinterconnect element 275 or a distributed full interconnect element 295,illustrated as an exemplary multiplexer 335. For an exemplaryembodiment, the multiplexer 335 is a 16-to-1 multiplexer, allowing theinput queues 320 to obtain data from any assigned source by selectingbusses of the interconnect 275, 295 for input data. An output from acircuit element 270 also may be fed back to be provided as an input,through the input queues 320, or directly within the circuitry of theelement 270, via an output switching element 380 mentioned above, orsimply via the full interconnect element 275.

In an exemplary embodiment, two output queues (registers or other formsof memory) 315 are provided, each having the corresponding eightcontexts, each having a width of one 16-bit data word, and having aselected depth of 1, 2 or more data words. Alternatively, the width maybe wider, such as to include a bit designating a placeholder, forexample. The output queues 315 also may be independent from each otheror may be dependent upon each other, such as using 2 output queues 315for a combined 32-bit data word. The contexts may also be combined, suchas to implement a larger queue, e.g., 8-16 words, for a selectedcontext. In addition to storing output data, the output queues 315(utilizing an incorporated state machine) may also replicate outputdata, such as providing the same output data to additional contexts fordistribution to additional destinations.

A plurality of outputs 375 are provided from the output queues 315 ofthe circuit element 270, illustrated as two outputs, also each having awidth of one 16-bit data word (or wider, as discussed above, such as forinclusion of a placeholder bit, control information, or other data). Theoutputs 375 also may be independent from each other or may be dependentupon each other, such as using 2 outputs for a combined 32-bit dataword. The outputs 375 are provided to the full interconnect element 275or distributed full interconnect element 295 (or the optional outputswitching element 380), which may independently provide each of theplurality of outputs 375 to any of the following (via correspondingcommunication structures or bus 350): (1) to the first communicationelements 250 (for output to other clusters 200); (2) to one or more(other) composite circuit elements 260 (including memory compositeelement 260 _(M)) within the same cluster 200; (3) to the SME 290 (suchas when utilized by the SME 290 for calculation of a value or comparisonof 2 values (e.g., to evaluate a condition or an event)); (4) to themessage manager 265; or (5) to an optional second memory element 255,such as a long queue for input into the SME 290 or other components. Asmentioned above, the optional output switching element 380 and otheroutput switching arrangements are also available and will be apparent tothose of skill in the electronic arts, are considered equivalent and arewithin the scope of the present invention.

In a selected embodiment, the memory 330 is implemented as a CAM, tofacilitate searching and identification of stored task identifiers (taskIDs) and stored action identifiers (action IDs). In another embodiment,the memory 330 is implemented as RAM, with searching and identificationperformed utilizing other search methods, such as binary searching.Other types and combinations of memory may be utilized, however, and allare considered equivalent and within the scope of the present invention,whether volatile or non-volatile, including without limitation any typeor combination of RAM, FLASH, DRAM, SDRAM, SRAM, MRAM, FeRAM, ROM, EPROMor E²PROM, or any other type of memory, storage medium, or data storageapparatus or circuit, which is known or which becomes known, dependingupon the selected embodiment.

The memory 330 is utilized in the exemplary embodiments to store bothcontexts and control information, utilized to configure the configurableelement 270 and direct its operations. Such contexts and controlinformation is stored as a configuration word in the exemplaryembodiments, as a plurality of information fields, and is discussedbelow with reference to FIG. 16. In addition, through the state machineelement 290, such configuration words may be altered, deleted,supplanted, added, and so on, and by modifying various bits within theconfiguration word, the execution of operations by the circuit element270 may also be controlled. This local storage of contexts and controlinformation provides for extremely fast execution capability, asconfigurations or instructions do not need to be fetched and read from aremote memory, but are instantly available as contexts for immediateconfiguration and control of the circuit element 270. As such, theapparatus 100 is not subject to the “von Neumann” bottleneck whichlimits the execution capabilities of typical processors. Indeed, thevarious memories 330 function as a large, very highly distributedinstruction memory which may be utilized advantageously, such as fordistributed processing, distributed digital signal processing,distributed programming, and distributed rebinding of instructions (oractions) in the event of a component failure, for example.

This use and local storage of contexts also allows for significant timemultiplexing of operations of composite circuit elements 260, firstcommunication elements 250, and state machine elements 290. For example,while one context of a selected composite circuit element 260 mayrequire input data which has not yet been created by another compositecircuit element 260, another context may be able to be executed on theselected composite circuit element 260, rather than the compositecircuit element 260 remaining idle. Similarly, the use of a plurality ofcontexts by a state machine element 290 allows multithreaded operation.For example, a SME 290 may commence execution of first code with aparticular first data set for a first context, store interim results anda first code pointer, commence execution of second code with a seconddata set for a second context and provide an output, followed byreturning to the first context for continued execution of the first codeusing the first code pointer and the stored, interim results. This useof time multiplexed contexts further allows interleaving of tasks andusage of resources which otherwise might be idle, allowing tasks toshare resources and increasing the overall resource utilization of theIC.

The element controller 325 may be implemented through combinationallogic gates and/or as a finite state machine, and is utilized to controlhow the circuit element 270 is configured and when the circuit element270 operates, utilizing the configuration word (contexts and controlinformation) stored in memory 330. More specifically, in exemplaryembodiments, the circuit element 270 operates based on data flow, suchthat when it has data at its inputs, when it has an availabledestination to store or consume the output data to be produced, and whenauthorized by the element controller 325, the circuit element 270 willcommence operations (or fire) and perform its calculations ormanipulations on the input data and provide the corresponding outputdata. The element controller 325 controls this data flow operation,based on a plurality of conditions and priorities (and other informationstored as one or more configuration words in memory 330). For example,when more than one context is ready for execution, the elementcontroller 325 may arbitrate which runs first, such as throughround-robin, or evaluation of one or more priorities, a scheduledexecution of an activity, or when the activity last occurred (e.g., amost recently executed action may have a lower priority in thearbitration, while a least recently executed action may have a higherpriority in the arbitration).

The element controller 325 may be implemented with varying levels ofsophistication. As mentioned above, in one embodiment, the elementcontroller 325 is not implemented, with the composite circuit elements260 essentially operating in a continuous mode, subject to otherconstraints (e.g., control from any of the various SMEs 290). At theother extreme, the element controller 325 may provide multi-threadedoperation of the circuit element 270, such as by storing a current stateof a partial execution of a first context in the (first) memory 330,executing a second context (via the circuit element 270), and retrievingthe current state and resuming execution of the first context by thecircuit element 270.

Exemplary configurable, computational elements 270 are illustrated inFIGS. 9 and 10. FIG. 9 is a block diagram of an exemplarymultiplier-type configurable element 270 _(F), and FIG. 10 is a blockdiagram of an exemplary triple-ALU-type configurable element 270 _(G).As illustrated, each has four 16-bit inputs 365 and two 16-bit outputs375, and depending upon the context, each is capable of utilizing allinputs 365 and outputs 375. The configuration corresponding to aselected context is provided for mode selection of correspondingmultiplexers, demultiplexers, and other switching elements to implementthe selected configuration.

As illustrated in FIG. 9, the exemplary multiplier-type configurableelement 270 _(F) is configurable for several operating modes, such asfor 32-bit multiplication, 16-bit multiplication, accumulation, andmixtures of 16- and 32-bit arithmetic. As a brief, high-levelexplanation, the multiplier-type configurable element 270 _(F) may beconfigured using the 4 multiplexers 383, 384, 385, 386, using the 32-bitoutput select 387, and using other configuration bits input into theadder/subtracter 382 and the multiplier 381. The 32-bit output select387 specifies whether the low 32 bits of the adder/subtracter 382 isoutput or which portion which portion of the 64-bit accumulationregister 388 is output. The multiplexer 385 (A Select) specifies theA-input into the adder/subtracter 382, as zero, I₁, I₂, or theaccumulation register 388; the multiplexer 386 (B Select) specifies thealignment of the B-input into the adder/subtracter 382, as one of four16-bit portions of a 64-bit output from the multiplier 381; andconfiguration bits into the adder/subtracter 382 further specify whetherthe A-input is signed or unsigned and whether the B-input is added orsubtracted. The multiplexer 383 (P Select) specifies the P-input intothe multiplier 381, as I₃ or I₂, and whether signed or unsigned. Themultiplexer 384 (Q Select) specifies the Q-input into the multiplier381, as I₁ or I₀, and whether signed or unsigned. In addition, themultiplier-type configurable element 270 _(F) also illustrates outputfeedback within the element 270, from the 64-bit accumulation register388 to multiplexer 385.

As illustrated in FIG. 10, the exemplary triple-ALU-type configurableelement 270 _(G) is configurable for a wide variety of functions inincluding multiplication, addition and subtraction (in signedarithmetic), masking, arithmetic averaging, and rounding, for example.In addition, the exemplary triple-ALU-type configurable element 270 _(G)may output a constant, pass one value (copying A or B to its output),perform logical functions (NOT, AND, OR, XOR), and may performconditional or unconditional data flow. As illustrated in FIG. 10,depending upon the configuration bits, each of the shifters 393, 394,and 395 shift their corresponding inputs left (positive) or right(negative) by the designated amounts. The ABS blocks 389, 399 eithercompute the absolute value of the input or pass the input, alsodepending on the configuration bits. The status multiplexer 396generates a status word using flag bits from each of the ALUs 390, 391and 392, which may be provided to the SME 290, in which one flag bitdesignates a carry or comparison, a second flag bit indicates the resultis the most significant bit, a third flag bit indicates the result is anegative one (−1), and a fourth flag bit indicates the result is zero.The condition-swap multiplexers 397 and 398 are utilized to provideconditional execution on inputs I₃, I₂, and based on the result, passingI₀ and/or I₁ to outputs 375, and further providing for swapping ofinputs before being copied to outputs 375.

As mentioned above, in addition to these types of configurable elements270, other anticipated configurable elements 270 include bit re-orderingelements (“BREOs”), single ALU elements, “super” ALU elements (32-bitALU), barrel shifter elements, look-up table elements, memory elements,programmable controller elements, communication elements, etc.

B. Program Compilation for the Apparatus

FIG. 11 is a flow diagram illustrating at an exemplary compilationprocess in accordance with the teachings of the present invention. Itshould be understood that the following discussion is very high levelfor purposes of explaining the present invention. The compilationprocess may be performed using any computer system or network,workstation, processing device, one or more microprocessors, electronicdesign automation (“EDA”) tools, electronic system-level (“ESL”) tools,etc.

Referring to FIG. 11, the method begins, start step 400, with selectionof an algorithm for compiling, step 405. Such an algorithm may beexpressed in a wide variety of ways, from a mathematical description toa source code or object code listing for a microprocessor, for example.The algorithm is converted or decomposed into a plurality of “tasks”,step 410, which are high level descriptions of a function or process,such as performing an inverse Fast Fourier Transformation (IFFT). A taskis then selected from the plurality of tasks and is assigned a taskidentifier (“task ID”), step 415, which is typically a sufficientlyunique identifier to differentiate the task from the other instances oftasks of the same algorithm or from tasks of other algorithms which willalso be running concurrently on the apparatus 100.

The selected task is then converted or decomposed into one or moreactions to be performed by a composite circuit element 260 (includingcomputational, state machine, and/or communication composite elements260, 290, 250) to execute the task, step 420. As mentioned above, an“action” is the type of function or activity to be performed by acomposite circuit element 260, such as multiplication, bit manipulation,and instruction processing, for example, and may be consideredequivalent to an instruction which would be executed by a processor or afunction performed by an ASIC or FPGA to achieve the same result. Forexample, an IFFT task may be decomposed into a plurality of “butterfly”steps such as multiplication, addition and accumulation steps, each orall of which would constitute an action (or instruction), such as“multiply ‘a’ times ‘b’ (a×b)”, and which would correspond to one of theoperational configurations of one of the composite circuit elements 260.Accordingly, as used herein, the terms “action”, “function” or“activity” are used equivalently and interchangeably to mean any suchcircuit processes. (As a result, such actions (or instructions), onceassigned and bound, will be on the IC in the form of a configuration ofone or more of the elements 270). Of the one or more actions (orinstructions), an actions (or instructions) is selected and assigned anaction identifier (“action ID”), step 425, which is a sufficientlyunique identifier to differentiate the action (or instruction) fromother actions (or instructions) for the selected task. The task ID andaction ID are utilized in the run-time binding process, discussed belowwith reference to FIG. 14.

Each action (or instruction) is then mapped or assigned as one or morecontexts of one or more composite circuit elements 260 by type ofcomposite circuit element(s) to be utilized, step 430, and not to anyspecific composite circuit elements 260 or specific addresses within thearchitecture, to create a “symbolic”, generic or non-specificcompilation which is not tied to particular hardware components. Forexample, a multiplication and addition action (or instruction) may bemapped as a single context to an ALU-type composite element 260 (acomposite element 260 having an ALU-type circuit element 270), and notto a specific ALU-type composite element 260 within a specific cluster200. More complicated actions (or instructions) may be mapped tomultiple contexts of multiple types of composite circuit elements 260.Later, as part of the binding process, one or more specific compositecircuit elements 260 of the selected type will be assigned to performthe action (or, equivalently, execute the instruction), as one or moreof its (or their) available contexts. This distinction is important, asit allows the action (or instruction) to be assigned initially to one ormore composite circuit elements 260 and then potentially reassigned toother composite circuit elements 260, as may be needed, during operationof the apparatus 100. In addition, as indicated, in exemplaryembodiments, this separate binding process may assign the action (orinstruction) as one or more contexts which are available for theselected types of composite circuit elements 260, with other contextspotentially remaining available for assignment of other actions (orinstructions).

As part of this process, corresponding “linkage” for each action (orinstruction) is also determined, also at this generic, symbolic ornon-specific level, step 435, namely, as generic or symbolic “pointers”:for each action, information is generated and retained concerning eithersources for input data or destinations for data output, or both. Forexample, action number “512” of task “418” will, in addition to beingmapped to an ALU-type composite element 260, have associated informationthat it will receive its input from action number “414” of task “229”,or that it will provide its output to action number “811” of task “319”(or both). Only one such set of either input linkage or output linkageis required, provided the set of information is generated consistentlyfor all actions (or instructions), as linking an input to its datasource automatically is linking the output of the data source to thisinput (destination) which will utilize the data, and vice-versa. Inselected embodiments, it may be useful to have both sets of I/O linkageinformation. This relationship or “linkage” between input and output,through generic or symbolic pointers, is also useful as part of the taskand action (or instruction) binding process discussed below. This inputor output linkage determination of step 435 may be performed in thecompilation process in a wide variety of orders and following any ofvarious steps. For example, this determination may be performedfollowing either step 440 or 445, such as when all actions (orinstructions) for a task have been determined and mapped to the types ofcomposite circuit elements 260, or when all actions (or instructions)and tasks have been determined and mapped to the types of compositecircuit elements 260.

The compilation process also determines any timing constraints in theprogram or algorithm which would correspondingly require a degree ofproximity or locality of execution by the various composite circuitelements 260, and provides corresponding regional constraints for theaffected tasks and/or actions (or instructions), step 440. For example,for various timing requirements, some processes may need to be executedwithin a single cluster 200 or within a group of clusters 200 within thesame supercluster 185, to avoid any delays which may be incurred fromrouting data packets on the interconnect 155 to and from other clusters200 or other superclusters 185. In these circumstances, a regionalrequirement is provided in the compiled output (the “symbolic netlist”discussed below), such as by a “region” command or instructiondesignation, for example, to provide that the actions (or instructions)which follow must be performed within a single cluster 200 or within asingle supercluster 185, followed by an “end region” indication for theactions (or instructions) confined to the single cluster 200 or singlesupercluster 185. Depending upon the selected embodiment, such regionalconstraints may also be extended to zones 201 within a circuit cluster200, such as a circuit cluster 200C.

Following step 440, the method determines whether there are additionalactions (or instructions) to be assigned an identifier and mapped totypes of composite circuit elements 260, step 445, and if so, the methodreturns to step 425 and iterates, to select the next action (orinstruction) and proceed through steps 425, 430 (potentially 435) and440. When all actions (or instructions) for the task have been assignedan identifier and mapped to types of composite circuit elements 260 (andpossibly input or output linked) in step 440, the method proceeds tostep 450, and determines whether additional tasks are to be compiled.When additional tasks are to be compiled in step 450, the method returnsto step 415 and iterates, selecting the next task, assigning a task ID,and so on.

When all tasks have been processed in step 450, such that the selectedalgorithm has been converted into a plurality of tasks and actions (orinstructions), which have then been symbolically (generically ornon-specifically) mapped to types of composite circuit elements 260 andsymbolically linked by either data input sources or data outputdestinations (or both) (e.g., using symbolic pointers), the methodgenerates a composite circuit element and routing “symbolic netlist” orsymbolic compilation, step 455. This symbolic netlist, listing orcompilation comprises a plurality of symbolic netlist elements, witheach such symbolic netlist element corresponding to and containinginformation for execution of each action of each task of the algorithmor program. More particularly, each symbolic netlist element containsinformation concerning: (1) the task ID; (2) the action ID; (3) one ormore types of composite circuit elements 260 and the number of contextsneeded for each type of composite circuit element 260 for execution ofthe action (or instruction) of the corresponding task ID and action ID;(4) input or output (or both) linkage information; and (5) any regional(i.e., proximity) constraints for the corresponding tasks or actions (orinstructions). In addition, the compilation method is applicable to anyof the various circuit and interconnect topologies described herein,including to the supercluster 185C and circuit cluster 200C topologies.

As an alternative to mapping to one or more types of composite circuitelements 260 in step 430 and linking instructions in step 435, actions(or instructions) may also be mapped to “macro-definitions” or“libraries”. Such “macro-definitions” or “libraries” are essentiallypre-compiled tasks or actions, which have already been mapped to typesof composite circuit elements 260 and which have been correspondinglylinked (with regional constraints, if any), with a correspondingsymbolic netlist. For example, an IFFT may be mapped to an IFFT library,which contains all of the composite element-type and compositeelement-linkage information to carry out an IFFT using the apparatus100. Such library creation may occur at any of various levels, such asmapping various algorithms of H.264 for streaming media, for example.

Moreover, there may be multiple sets of such mappings and linkages forany selected action or task, which may be optimized for different goals,each of which may result in a different symbolic netlist. For example,as mentioned above, a task to be performed by a triple-ALU-typecomposite element 260 may instead be mapped to three single ALU-typecomposite elements 260. While this could potentially decrease bandwidthor speed of performance, it may allow performance by the apparatus 100when other, higher priority algorithms are utilizing all availablecontexts of all available triple-ALU-type composite elements 260.Similarly, a task to be performed by an ALU-type composite element 260may instead be mapped to a plurality of addition- andmultiplication-type composite elements 260, creating yet another mappingand linking variation.

As a result of these mapping and linking variations which are available,any selected algorithm may have multiple symbolic netlists generated,each optimized or selected for a different goal, such as speed ofperformance, power minimization, ability to run with diminishedresources, safety, redundancy, conflict resolution, and so on. Forexample, referring to FIG. 1, in the event a significant portion of theIC is damaged, such that the optimal algorithm for ABS no longer hassufficient IC resources to run, another (sub-optimal) version of the ABSfunctionality may be loaded and bound in the IC, enabling an importantfunction to continue to operate and avoid potentially harmfulconsequences under circumstances in which another IC, such as a standardmicroprocessor, would fail completely.

Following symbolic netlist generation in step 450, the compilationmethod determines whether additional algorithms are to be compiled or,as discussed above, additional versions or alternatives for a selectedalgorithm are to be compiled, step 455, and if so, the method returns tostep 405 and iterates. When no further algorithms or versions ofalgorithms are to be compiled in step 455, the method may end, returnstep 460.

C. Operating System

FIG. 12 is a flow diagram illustrating at a high level an exemplaryoperating system or process in accordance with the teachings of thepresent invention. It should be understood that the following discussionis very high level for purposes of explaining the present invention. Inaddition to being performed by the various SMEs 290, alternatively, thisoperating system functionality could be performed by one or moreadditional controllers 175.

The process begins, starting with step 500, with the apparatus 100 beingpowered on, such as part of an SOC or within another system, such as avehicle, a computer, a complex system, a mobile telephone, a personaldigital assistant, an MP3 player, and so on. A self-test is performed,step 505, typically by each of the state machine elements 290, which maytest themselves and, in exemplary embodiments, the various compositecircuit elements 260, first communication elements 250, fullinterconnect element(s) 275 or distributed full interconnect elements295, other state machine elements 290, and other logic, communication ormemory elements within their corresponding clusters 200 or otherclusters 200 (e.g., for those clusters 200 implemented withoutcorresponding SMEs 290). There are a wide variety of methods todetermine whether these various components are operating properly. In anexemplary embodiment, the operational determination is performed by acomposite circuit element (with composite circuit element utilized inits inclusive sense, including of all of the various composite circuitelements 260, first communication elements 250, full interconnectelement(s) 275 or distributed full interconnect elements 295, otherstate machine elements 290, and other logic, communication or memoryelements within their corresponding clusters 200 or other clusters 200),and is at least one of the following types of determinations: a periodicdiagnostic performed by at least one composite circuit element of theplurality of composite circuit elements; a background diagnosticperformed as a selected context of at least one composite circuitelement of the plurality of composite circuit elements; or a comparisontest performed by a plurality of composite circuit elements of the samecircuit element type. For example, each of the various types ofcomposite circuit elements, including the types of elements 270, mayeach perform a diagnostic self-test, followed by comparing theircorresponding results. If the results of a first composite circuitelements does not match the expected result, such as by comparison ofthe results of other composite circuit elements 260 of the same type,the first composite circuit element is deemed defective or not properlyoperational, and is not included within the map or list of availableresources (step 515, below).

One or more of the SMEs 290 (or controllers 175) will then obtain andexecute a boot program, step 510, such as a program designed and storedfor the apparatus 100 in an associated memory (e.g., flash or otherEEPROM memory) or other data storage device, such as a hard disk drive,an optical drive, etc., which may be part of the same IC or associatedsystem.

Two significant functions are performed as part of the boot process ofthe operating system in steps 515 and 520. One or more of the SMEs 290creates a map or list of available apparatus 100 resources, such as alist within a cluster 200 or supercluster 185 of which composite circuitelements 260, first communication elements 250, and other components arefunctioning properly, step 515 (e.g., similar to creating a bad or goodsector map for a memory or disk drive). Step 515 may be performed, forexample, by each SME 290 for its corresponding cluster 200, or by one ormore SMEs 290 (pre-designated or as determined in the boot program) foran entire supercluster 185 or matrix 150. In an exemplary embodiment,step 515 is performed by combinational logic elements, as illustrated inand as discussed below with reference to FIG. 13, which may be locatedor distributed within a composite circuit element 260, a cluster 200,and throughout the matrix hierarchy. In addition, in step 520, a mastercontroller is determined, which may be one selected SME 290 or aplurality of SMEs 290 operating as a master controller, or may be one ormore additional controllers 175 or other, off-chip controllers,processors, or state machines. In an exemplary embodiment, a mastercontroller is determined as a SME 290 having the lowest address (at thetime).

The operating system, through one or more state machine elements 290 (orcontrollers 175), potentially with user input, then determines orselects which programs, algorithms or functions are to be performed,step 525, such as selecting the ABS, traction control, video andnavigational programs previously discussed. Next, in step 530, theoperating system binds the symbolic netlist(s) of the selected programsto the available resources (determined in step 515), by assigning a taskand action(s) (or instruction(s)) to a selected composite circuitelement 260 (as one or more contexts), by linking the inputs of theselected composite circuit element 260 to the other correspondingcomposite circuit elements 260 which are its data sources, to provideits input data (which also correspondingly links these data sourceoutputs to the inputs of the selected composite circuit element 260 asdata destinations), and/or by linking the outputs of the selectedcomposite circuit element 260 (as data sources) to the othercorresponding composite circuit elements 260 which are its datadestinations, to utilize the data produced by the selected compositecircuit elements 260 (which also correspondingly links the inputs ofthese data destinations to the outputs of the selected composite circuitelement 260 (as a data source)).

Once all tasks and actions (or instructions) are bound (assigned andlinked), the apparatus 100 commences execution or running of thecorresponding programs or operations, step 535, such as operating theABS and fraction control systems, playing a video for passengers, andproviding a real-time navigational display for the driver. The binding(assigning and linking) process is discussed in detail below withreference to FIG. 14. The control of the program (or operational)execution process in each composite circuit element 260 is discussed ingreater detail below with reference to FIG. 16.

The operating system may also determine that new or differentfunctionality is needed, step 540, such as when a user or operatorselects an additional program, or circumstances require a change infunctionality, such as through a sensor detecting a particularcondition. For example, in a vehicle environment, a sensor may detect achange in driving or road conditions, and adjust various programsaccordingly. When new or different functionality is needed in step 540,the method rebinds (re-assigns and re-links) the affected tasks andactions (or instructions), step 545, and the apparatus 100 continues tooperate with these various changes. The tasks and actions (orinstructions) may be moved to new locations, or existing or new tasksand actions (or instructions) may be loaded, assigned and bound. Theoperating system may also bind or re-bind an entire program orfunctionality de novo. This re-binding step 545 may also includeunbinding, that is, completely removing an assigned functionality, suchas by deleting its corresponding contexts from memory. Such unbindingmay occur, for example, when the apparatus 100 is already at capacity,and room must be created for the new or different functionality. Suchunbinding was illustrated in FIG. 1, when video functioning was removedas the apparatus 100 increasingly lost capacity through IC damage.

The apparatus 100, through one or more state machine elements 290 (orcontrollers 175) performing the operating system (or as part of abuilt-in self test (“BIST”)), periodically performs a limited or fullself-test, step 550, to detect any changes in availability of resources,step 555. For example, the self-test may reveal that a BREO-type circuitelement 270 is no longer functioning properly, and therefore should nolonger be available for use within the apparatus 100. When such damageor loss of functionality occurs in step 555, the operating system(through the SMEs 290 or controllers 175) correspondingly modifies themap or list of available resources, step 560, rebinds the affected tasksand actions (or instructions) using the modified list or map, step 565,and the apparatus 100 continues to operate with these various changes.

When no such damage or loss of functionality has occurred in step 555,or following step 565, the method proceeds to step 570. In step 570, theapparatus 100 may continue operating, returning to step 535. In theevent that operations are to cease in step 570, such as by the userselecting to turn off the device having the apparatus 100, the apparatus100 may shut down or power off, return step 575.

Not separately illustrated in FIG. 12, in another exemplary embodiment,the plurality of composite circuit elements 260 may be implemented oradapted to store periodically a then current state, such as a “snapshot”of its current operations. Subsequently, in response to a detectedfault, the composite circuit elements 260 are adapted to retrieve thestored state and recommence operation using the stored state.

D. Symbolic Netlist Assignment and Run-Time Binding

With this background in mind, the run-time binding process may now beexplained. As indicated above, the inventive architecture in conjunctionwith the run-time binding of a symbolic netlist (or other programcompilation) enable the self-healing and resiliency of the apparatus100. More particularly, when any of the composite circuit elements 260,SMEs 290, first communication elements 250, full interconnect element(s)275 or distributed full interconnect element(s) 295, other cluster 200components, or routing or other communications elements (190, 210),either do not perform properly initially (as determined in step 515during testing portions of the boot process) or during later operation(as determined during self-test or as determined by other components,steps 550, 555), they are not placed on or are removed from the map orlist of available resources, respectively. If not performing properlyinitially, the affected component is never assigned any functionality instep 530. If the affected component was originally functioning and is nolonger (step 555), it is removed from the list or map of availableresources, and its assigned functionality is moved or loaded to anotheravailable component and re-routed, separately or as part of therebinding of the corresponding tasks or instructions of step 565. If ithas been determined that the data has been corrupted, the controllingtask is notified so that the appropriate action can be taken. Thisbinding process is explained in detail below.

1. Resource Availability

FIG. 13 is a block diagram illustrating exemplary combinational logiccircuitry 600 for context availability determination within an exemplaryapparatus 100 in accordance with the teachings of the present invention.Such circuitry 600 may be included within each composite circuit element260, such as within a circuit element 270, an element controller 325,within a SME 290, or as separate combinational logic (not separatelyillustrated in FIG. 8). As mentioned above, the number of availablecontexts for each type of composite circuit element 260 is determinedfor use in binding (or re-binding) a program or algorithm forperformance within the apparatus 100. Such determination may be made byone or more SMEs 290, controllers (or other processors) 175, or asillustrated in FIG. 13, dedicated combinational logic circuitry 600.

Referring to FIG. 13, as part of the information stored in the memory330 within each composite circuit element 260 is a state bit and a firstcondition bit, for each context. The state bit indicates whether thecontext has been assigned or allocated to an action (or instruction) ornot, and is therefore free or available to be assigned (logic high orone), or is not free and available to be assigned (logic low or zero).Alternatively, the state may be determined by examining the memory 330to determine whether the action ID and task ID fields are zero ornon-zero for the selected context, indicating available (no assigned orallocated action ID and task ID) or unavailable (already assigned orallocated action ID and task ID), and then inverted to be utilized asthe state bit in FIG. 13. The first condition bit indicates whether thecomposite circuit element 260 is operational (logic high or one) ornon-operational (logic low or zero), as determined from the variousexemplary self-test processes discussed above. For each context (of “m”contexts), a first AND operation is performed on the corresponding statebit and first condition bit, via AND gates 605 (illustrated as theplurality of AND gates 605 ₀, 605 ₁, through 605 _((m-1)), such that theresult of the AND operation indicates that the context is both availableand that the composite circuit element 260 is working properly (logichigh or one), or that either the context is not available or that thecomposite circuit element 260 is not working properly (logic low orzero).

A second, controller (SME 290) condition bit is utilized to indicatewhether the SME 290 (within the cluster 200) is operational (logic highor one) or non-operational (logic low or zero), also as determined fromthe various exemplary self-test processes discussed above, and may bestored in any of the various memories within the composite circuitelement 260 or cluster 200. A second AND operation is performed usingthis first AND result (state and first condition bit) and the second,controller condition bit (via the plurality of AND gates 610 ₀, 610 ₁,through 610 _((m-1))), such that the result of the second AND operationindicates that the context is both available and that both the compositecircuit element 260 and SME 290 are working properly (logic high orone), or that the context is not available, that the composite circuitelement 260 is not working properly, or that the SME 290 is not workingproperly (logic low or zero). The first and second AND operations alsomay be performed as a single, combined AND operation having at leastthree inputs (state bit, first condition bit, and second condition bit).The results of the second AND operation for each context may be added,such as by using a “one-hot” adder 615 (or a SME 290 or othercontroller), providing the number of free contexts per composite circuitelement 260 (with a working SME 290).

As illustrated, this process may continue up the matrix hierarchy, withthe number of free contexts per composite circuit element 260 addedtogether for each type of composite circuit element 260 within a cluster200, then added together for each type of composite circuit element 260within a supercluster 185, then added together for each type ofcomposite circuit element 260 within a matrix 150, and then addedtogether for each type of composite circuit element 260 within theapparatus 100. These additional ADD operations may be performed usingdedicated ADDERs (e.g., 620, 625, 630) or by using composite circuitelements 260 configured for ADD operations and under the control oftheir corresponding SMEs 290. As a result, availability counts for eachtype of composite circuit element 260 may be determined and maintainedat each level, namely, at a cluster 200 level, a supercluster 185 level,a matrix 150 level, and an apparatus level.

Such counts at these various levels are particularly useful fordetermining whether a supercluster 185 or cluster 200 has availabilityto satisfy a regional constraint, such as when a number of operationsmust be performed with timing constraints using certain types ofcomposite circuit elements 260 within a cluster 200 or supercluster 185.In addition, using such combinational logic circuitry, composite circuitelement 260 availability is determined and maintained rapidly,concurrently and in parallel for all clusters 200, with delays only fromseveral AND and ADD operations (e.g., two AND delays and four ADD delaystotal for an entire matrix 150).

As an alternative for availability determination, the SME 290 may beutilized to poll or examine the various registers of all of the memories330 of the corresponding composite circuit elements 260 within thecluster 200, and add up the results by type of composite circuit element260 for each cluster, with one or more selected SMEs 290 then adding upresults for each supercluster 185 and matrix 150. Such availabilitydetermination may be top-down in the matrix hierarchy, such as initiatedby a master controller (which may be a designated SME 290 or acontroller 175), or bottom-up in the matrix hierarchy, such asillustrated in FIG. 13 or as provided by each of the SMEs 290 withineach cluster 200. It will be apparent to those of skill in theelectronic arts that there are innumerable ways of providing thisavailability determination, using combinational, conditional or controllogic, all of which are considered equivalent and within the scope ofthe present invention.

2. Symbolic Netlist Assignment

FIG. 14, divided into FIGS. 14A, 14B, 14C and 14D, is a flow diagramillustrating an exemplary algorithm or symbolic netlist run-time bindingprocess in accordance with the teachings of the present invention, andfurther illustrates significant functionality associated with the statemachine elements 290 distributed throughout the apparatus 100.Alternatively, this functionality could be performed by one or moreadditional controllers 175, such as a controller 175 designated as amaster controller for the apparatus 100. In addition to the bindingprocess illustrated, those of skill in the art will recognize thatnumerous variations of the methodology are available, and are consideredequivalent and within the scope of the present invention. At least onesuch variation is also discussed below.

As mentioned above, the apparatus 100 performs a run-time bindingoperation of an algorithm provided as a symbolic netlist, which may beconsidered similar to a place and route operation for programmableresources with programmable routing. In this case, the programmableresources themselves have been placed on the IC, and the binding processthen assigns an action (or instruction) (as part of a task) to one ormore contexts of one or more available resources, and provides thecorresponding routing or linkage of inputs and outputs. In contrast withprior art place and route methodologies, which may take hours or days torun, the methodology of the invention operates quite rapidly, on thescale of microseconds or milliseconds to seconds.

Referring to FIG. 14A (FIG. 14A), the method begins, start step 700,with the determination and/or maintenance of the availability counts foreach type of composite circuit element 260, preferably at the cluster,supercluster, and matrix levels, as discussed above. The first (or next)action (i.e., function or instruction), as symbolic netlist elements,are provided to a master controller, step 705, which may be one or moredesignated SMEs 290 or one or more controllers 175, for example. Thedesignated SME 290 or controller 175 then determines whether the action(function or instruction) includes a regional or proximity constraint,step 710, and if so, proceeds to step 715. When the action (orinstruction) does not include a regional constraint in step 710, theaction (or instruction) is provided to a supercluster and a clusterlevel having sufficient availability of resources for the instruction,step 750, such as a sufficient number of available contexts for the oneor more types of composite circuit elements 260 provided in the symbolicnetlist.

The SME(s) 290 of the available cluster(s) 200 assign(s) the action (orinstruction) to one or more available composite circuit elements 260 inthe cluster(s) 200, step 755, by storing the corresponding information(configuration, the task ID, the action ID, and the source (ordestination) task ID and action ID) in the corresponding memory 330 ofeach such composite circuit element 260, or stored in a memory compositecircuit element 260, the second memory element 255, or other memoryaccessible to the SME 290 and the composite circuit element 260. Theamount and location of the stored information may vary among selectedembodiments. In an exemplary embodiment, the action (or instruction) isstored locally in the memory 330 (or otherwise within the cluster 200)as a configuration, task ID, action ID, with corresponding linkageinformation (either data source for inputs or data destination foroutputs, also by task ID and action ID). Following the assignment, theavailability count is modified, step 760, such as automatically modifiedas described above for FIG. 13, or by decrementing a count maintained ina register when, for example, the various counts are maintained by adesignated SME 290 or controller 175.

The method then determines whether all actions (or instructions) havebeen assigned, step 765. When there are actions (or instructions)remaining to be assigned, the method then determines whether there areavailable resources remaining, step 770. When there are availableresources remaining in step 770, the method returns to step 705 anditerates, selecting and assigning the next action (or instruction). Whenthere are no more actions (or instructions) remaining for assignment,the method proceeds to step 800 to commence with routing (i.e., linking)all of the assigned actions (or instructions).

When there are actions (or instructions) remaining to be assigned instep 765, but there are no more available resources in step 770,indicating that the selected algorithm may not be able to operate on theapparatus 100 as currently configured (or available), an error orexception message is generated, step 775, and the method may end, returnstep 780, as the symbolic netlist of the selected program cannot becurrently assigned. In that event, there are many potential courses ofaction. For example, the designated SME 290 or controller 175 may deletelower priority programs or operations which are consuming or utilizingresources, to make room for the selected program or operations and allowthe selected program to execute on the apparatus 100. In otherinstances, the designated SME 290 or controller 175 may select anotherversion of the program which may be able to be assigned without removingsuch other programs. In other instances, it may indicate that a largerapparatus 100 with more resources is needed for the selectedapplication.

When the selected action (or instruction) includes a regional constraintin step 710, the method proceeds to step 715, as illustrated in FIG.14B. Such a regional constraint may take the form of, for example:

region 3 supercluster region 1 cluster actions I1, I2 I1 I2 end regionregion 2 cluster actions I3, I4 I3 I4 end region end regionin which a supercluster regional (proximity) constraint incorporates twocluster-level regional constraints, each of which has included actions(or instructions) subject to the constraint (“constrained actions”). Asmentioned above, zone 201 constraints may also be utilized. Asillustrated in this example, actions (or instructions) I1 and I2 (assymbolic netlist elements) must be assigned within the same cluster 200,and actions (or instructions) I3 and I4 (as symbolic netlist elements)must be assigned within the same cluster 200 (as Region 2, which may bethe same or a different cluster than the Region 1 cluster of I1 and I2).Both clusters 200, however, must be in the same supercluster, asincorporated within the supercluster constraint (region 3).

In step 715, the designated SME 290 or controller 175 determines whetherthe constraint is a supercluster constraint, which would require the setof constrained actions to be assigned within the same supercluster 185.When the regional constraint is for a supercluster in step 715, thedesignated SME 290 or controller 175 provides the superclusterconstraint to all available superclusters 185 which meet theavailability requirements of the constraint, and temporarily designatesor marks those one or more superclusters as candidates, step 720.Following step 720, or when the constraint is not a superclusterconstraint in step 715, the constrained actions are provided to allavailable clusters 200 which meet the first cluster constraint (withinone or more superclusters, if required by the previous constraint), suchas the various clusters which meet the Region 1 constraint of theexample, and those clusters 200 are temporarily designated ascandidates, step 725. The next set of cluster-level constrained actions,if any, are provided to all available clusters 200 which meet the nextcluster constraint (within one or more superclusters, if required by theprevious constraint), such as the various clusters which meet the Region2 constraint of the example, and those clusters 200 are also temporarilydesignated as candidates, step 730. In addition, those superclusters orclusters which had previously been candidates, but now do not containsufficient available clusters to meet these additional constraints, maynow be released and no longer designated as candidates for the regionalconstraints. While not separately illustrated, the same methodology mayalso be employed for any zone 201 constraints. When there are additionalconstraints to be processed, step 735, the method returns to step 730,and continues the temporary designation process.

When no further constraints need to be processed in step 735, the methoddetermines whether one or more matches (supercluster and/or clusterlevels) have been found, step 740. When one or more matches have beenfound in step 740, the designated SME 290 or controller 175 selects atleast one such match, assigns the constrained actions (or instructions)to the selected candidate set, releases all the other tentativeassignments, and proceeds to step 760, to modify the availability countsand continue the assignment process, as discussed above. When no matchhas been found in step 740, indicating that the selected algorithm maynot be able to operate on the apparatus 100 as currently configured (oravailable), the method returns to step 775 and generates an error orexception message, and the method may end, return step 780, as thesymbolic netlist of the selected program with the constraints cannot becurrently assigned. As mentioned above, in that event, there are manypotential courses of action. For example, the designated SME 290 orcontroller 175 may delete lower priority programs or operations or mayutilize another version of the program which may be assigned morereadily.

3. Run-Time Binding

When all actions (or instructions) have been assigned in step 765, theactions (or instructions) may be connected or routed, to establish allof the data communication paths which will be utilized during operationof the apparatus 100 to execute the selected program or algorithm. Asindicated above, each action (or instruction) has input or outputinformation stored symbolically with the configuration for the selectedcontext of a selected composite circuit element 260. More specifically,the input or output information is stored effectively as pointers, withone task ID and action ID pointing to another task ID and action ID aseither its data source (for input data) or data destination (to provideoutput data). Such information is stored symbolically or generically,because until the action (or instruction) has been assigned, the actualaddress for the data source or data destination is unknown. Providedthat either data source information is utilized consistently, or datadestination information is utilized consistently, only one such set ofinformation is needed, although both can be utilized to potentiallyincrease resiliency. In accordance with the exemplary embodiments, suchdata source or data destination information is utilized to connect thedata inputs (for the input queues 320) of a composite circuit element260, for each context, with the data outputs 375 (via output queues 315)of a context of another composite circuit element 260 (or the samecomposite circuit element 260, for a feedback configuration). Thiscreates either direct data connections (circuit-switched within acluster 200) or packet-routed (hybrid packet-routed and circuit switchedbetween clusters) data connections for data flow and, in either case,data is provided without requiring intermediate or separate steps ofdata storage in a register and data fetching from a register. Dependingon the selected embodiment, such as for a supercluster 185C and circuitcluster 200C, the data connections may all be circuit-switched, throughthe cluster queues 245A and corresponding full or distributedinterconnect 275, 295.

Following step 765, the routing process begins, step 800, as illustratedin FIG. 14C. In the exemplary embodiment illustrated in FIG. 14C, theprocess is “bottom-up”, beginning at the cluster 200 level (or zone 201and cluster 200C levels) and proceeding to higher levels (superclusterand matrix levels) as needed. Not separately illustrated, the processmay also be initiated from a “top-down” perspective, such as by thedesignated SME 290 or controller 175 transmitting a request to the SMEs290 of the clusters 200 to initiate the routing process of step 800.

Referring to FIG. 14C, step 800, one or more SMEs 290 of thecorresponding clusters 200 begin the routing process by selecting anaction (or instruction) of a first context of a composite circuitelement 260, and determining the source (or destination) task and actionidentifiers stored as part of the selected action (or instruction). Inexemplary embodiments, this process may be performed by each SME 290 ofeach cluster 200 as a parallel process, resulting in a very highlyefficient binding routing process. In other exemplary embodiments, ifnot every cluster 200 has a SME 290, then another SME 290 within thesupercluster 185 may be utilized.

As indicated above, these source (or destination) task and action IDs,in selected embodiments, are stored in the memory 330 of the elementinterface and control 280 of the composite circuit element 260. Inalternative embodiments, the source (or destination) task and actionidentifiers may be stored in other memory elements, such as amemory-type composite circuit element 260 _(M), second memory element255, or other memory elements which may be included within a cluster200. To facilitate routing, the memory 330 (or other memory element) maybe implemented as a content addressable memory (“CAM”), as mentionedabove, or as any other type of memory. Consequently, in step 805, forrouting at a first level of hierarchy, a SME 290 may examine all of thememories (330, 255, 260 _(M), etc.) within its cluster 200 by thesesource (or destination) task and action identifiers of the first context(the composite circuit element 260 context to be routed) to find thecorresponding action (or instruction) of another, second context whichmatches these source (or destination) task and action identifiers. Whenother forms of memory are utilized instead of a CAM, e.g., SDRAM, thenthe SME 290 may perform a search of the memory (330, 255, 260 _(M), orother memory storing the task ID and action ID), such as a binarysearch, to find the corresponding action (or instruction) of another,second context which matches these source (or destination) task andaction identifiers.

When the matching action (or instruction) (having the corresponding taskand action identifiers) of a second context of a composite circuitelement 260 has been found within a memory (330, 255, 260 _(M), etc.),in step 810, the SME 290 then knows to route the selected, first contextto this second context having the matching or corresponding action (orinstruction). As a consequence, in step 815, when source task and actionidentifiers are stored, the SME 290 routes the input(s) of the firstcontext (as a data destination) to the corresponding output of thesecond context (as a data source), and when destination task and actionidentifiers are stored, the SME 290 routes the output(s) of the firstcontext (as a data source) to the corresponding input(s) of the secondcontext (as a data destination). Within the cluster 200 or zone 201, theSME 290 establishes these internal cluster connections via the fullinterconnect element 275 or distributed full interconnect element 295.Following step 815, when there are additional actions (or instructions)to be routed in step 820, the method continues iteratively, returning tostep 800, with a SME 290 or other controller selecting the next action(or instruction) to be routed.

When the matching action (or instruction) (having the corresponding taskand action identifiers) of a second context of a composite circuitelement 260 has not been found within a memory (330, 255, 260 _(M),etc.) of its cluster 200, in step 810, the SME 290 then knows that thecorresponding data source or destination is not within its cluster 200(referred to as a first cluster 200). As a consequence, in step 825, theSME 290 both: (1) routes the selected, first context to the periphery ofthe first cluster 200 (to one of the first communication elements 250for data transmission via interconnect 155, through the fullinterconnect element 275, distributed full interconnect element 295, orthe message manager 265, or otherwise directly to the firstcommunication element 250); and (2) generates a routing request (query)to the supercluster-level controller (which may be a designated SME 290or controller 175 having this assigned duty) to find a second context inanother cluster 200 of its supercluster 185 which may have the matchingor corresponding action (or instruction). From the perspective of theSME 290 of the first cluster 200, its routing of the first context iscomplete, and it may proceed with routing of other contexts (actions (orinstructions)), if any, returning to step 820, with the superclustercontroller (designated SME 290 or controller 175) then proceeding tostep 830.

Having received a routing request (designating the second context), instep 830, the supercluster controller transmits a request or query toall (other) clusters 200 within its supercluster 185, for those SMEs 290to determine whether the corresponding action (or instruction) islocated in one of their memories (330, 255, 260 _(M), etc.), for routingat a second level of hierarchy. When one of these other clusters 200, asa second cluster 200, has the matching or corresponding action (orinstruction) (i.e., has the source (or destination) task and actionidentifiers of the first context) as a second context of one of itscomposite circuit elements 260, step 835, this second cluster 200 thenknows that this second context is the source or destination for datawhich is to be routed to or from another, first cluster 200. As aconsequence, in step 840, the second SME 290 of the second cluster 200routes this second context to the periphery of the second cluster 200(to one of the first communication elements 250 for data transmissionvia interconnect 155, through the full interconnect element 275,distributed full interconnect element 295, the message manager 265, orotherwise directly to the first communication element 250), andtransmits a corresponding message to the supercluster controller(designated SME 290 or controller 175), indicating or providinginformation that it has the second context having the matching orcorresponding action (or instruction). The supercluster controller, inturn, creates a corresponding linkage between the first cluster 200 andthe second cluster 200, for the corresponding contexts, step 845, suchas by storing corresponding routing information in a secondcommunication element 210, and the cluster-to-cluster routing iscomplete. From the perspective of the SME 290 of the second cluster 200,its routing is also complete, and it may proceed with routing of itsother contexts (actions (or instructions)), if any, also returning tostep 820.

While not separately illustrated, in another variation, such as forsupercluster 185C, one or more of the SMEs 290 within the supercluster185C may perform all such routing within a cluster 200C or within theentire supercluster 185C, all through the various cluster queues 245A.Referring to FIG. 18, a SME 290 may provide: (1) corresponding routingwithin a selected zone 201B, such as directly from CE₄ to CE₅, forexample, via the full or distributed interconnect 275, 295; (2)corresponding routing within a selected circuit cluster 200C, such asdirectly from CE₄ to CE₁₂ via the full or distributed interconnects 275,295 and cluster queue 245A₁₅; (3) corresponding routing to a selectedadjacent circuit cluster 200C, such as directly from CE₄ to anothercomposite circuit element 260 of another cluster 200C within thesupercluster 185C via the full or distributed interconnects 275, 295,any intervening (zone to zone) cluster queues 245A, and then through aperipheral cluster queue 245A, such as 245A₁₀; (4) corresponding routingto a selected, non-adjacent circuit cluster 200C within the supercluster185C, such as directly from CE₄ to another composite circuit element 260of another cluster 200C via the full or distributed interconnects 275,295, any intervening (zone to zone) cluster queues 245A, and typically aplurality of peripheral cluster queues 245A; and (5) correspondingrouting to a circuit cluster 200C which is not within the supercluster185C, via a message manager 265.

For example, when routed through any of the cluster queues 245A, anyselected cluster queue 245A (with a corresponding selected context) is adata destination for a selected context of data producing compositecircuit element 260, and is in turn a data source for either a selectedcontext of a data consuming composite circuit element 260 or anotherselected context of a cluster queue 245A (such as for data routingthrough a plurality of cluster queues 245A, such as for data routingbetween clusters 200C, for example, using either source- ordestination-based communication, as described herein).

In step 835, when none of these other clusters 200 within the selected,first supercluster 185 has the matching or corresponding action (orinstruction) (with the source (or destination) task and actionidentifiers of the first context) in a second context of one of itscomposite circuit elements 260, the supercluster controller then knowsthat the corresponding data source or destination is not within itssupercluster 185 (referred to as a first supercluster 185). As aconsequence, in step 860 (illustrated in FIG. 14D), the firstsupercluster controller both: (1) routes the first context to theperiphery of the first supercluster 185 (i.e., to one of the secondcommunication elements 210 or to one of the message managers 265); and(2) generates a routing request to the matrix-level controller (whichalso may be a designated SME 290 or controller 175 having this assignedduty) to find a second context in another supercluster 185 of its matrix150 which may have the matching or corresponding action (orinstruction), for routing at a third level of hierarchy. From theperspective of the designated SME 290 or controller 175 of the firstsupercluster 185, its routing is complete, and the method returns tostep 820, to continue the routing process for other actions, as may beneeded, and also proceeds to step 865.

Having received a routing request (designating the second context), instep 865, the matrix controller transmits a request or query to all(other) clusters 200 within its matrix 150, for those SMEs 290 todetermine whether the corresponding action (or instruction) is locatedin one of their memories (330, 255, 260 _(M), etc.), for routing at thisthird level of hierarchy. This routing request may be transmitteddirectly to SMEs 290 of the clusters 200, or may be transmitted viasupercluster controllers. When one of these other clusters 200, as asecond cluster 200, has the matching or corresponding action (orinstruction) (i.e., has the source (or destination) task and actionidentifiers of the first context) as a second context of one of itscomposite circuit elements 260, step 870, this second cluster 200 thenknows that this second context is the source or destination for datawhich is to be routed to or from another, first cluster 200. As aconsequence, in step 875, the second SME 290 of the second cluster 200routes this second context to the periphery of the second cluster 200(to one of the first communication elements 250 for data transmissionvia interconnect 155, through the full interconnect element 275,distributed full interconnect element 295, the message manager 265, orotherwise directly to the first communication element 250), andtransmits a corresponding message to the matrix controller (designatedSME 290 or controller 175), indicating or providing information that ithas the second context having the matching or corresponding action (orinstruction). The matrix controller, in turn, creates a correspondinglinkage between the first cluster 200 and the second cluster 200, forthe corresponding contexts, step 880, such as by storing correspondingrouting information in a third communication element 190 and a secondcommunication element 210, and the supercluster-to-supercluster routingis complete. From the perspective of the SME 290 of the second cluster200, its routing is also complete, and it may proceed with routing ofits other contexts (actions (or instructions)), if any, also returningto step 820.

In step 870, when none of these other clusters 200 within the selected,first matrix 150 has the matching or corresponding action (orinstruction) (with the source (or destination) task and actionidentifiers of the first context) in a second context of one of itscomposite circuit elements 260, the matrix controller then knows thatthe corresponding data source or destination is not within the firstmatrix 150. As a consequence, in step 885, the first matrix 150 both:(1) routes the first context to the periphery of the first matrix 150(i.e., to one of the third communication elements 190); and (2)generates a routing request to the other matrix-level controllers (whichalso may be a designated SME 290 or controller 175 having this assignedduty) to find a second context in another matrix 150 of the device 100which may have the matching or corresponding action (or instruction),for routing at a fourth level of hierarchy. From the perspective of thedesignated SME 290 or controller 175 of the first matrix 150, itsrouting is complete, and the method returns both to step 820, tocontinue the routing process for other actions, as may be needed, andthe method iteratively repeats steps 865-880, as needed, at theapparatus 100 level.

As all actions (or instructions) had been assigned previously, thematching or corresponding action (or instruction) is in a second contextof a composite circuit element 260 in a cluster 200 of a supercluster185 of one of the matrices 150, and the method searches up to the matrixor apparatus level, as needed, with those corresponding matrix- orapparatus-level controllers (designated SME 290 or controller 175)routing to their corresponding peripheries (e.g., third communicationelements 190 and any intervening second communication elements 210)using interconnect 155 and transmitting queries to their correspondinglower-level superclusters 185 and clusters 200.

As a result, all actions (or instructions) become routed, connecting alldata sources or data destinations with their corresponding datadestinations or data sources, respectively, either within the samecluster 200 (step 815), or between clusters 200 (steps 825, 840, and845) which are within the same supercluster 185, or within the samematrix 150 (steps 875 and 880), or just within the apparatus 100. Whenall actions (or instructions) have been routed in step 820, thedesignated SME 290 or controller 175 sets or enables the run status forthe particular task ID, step 850. When there are additional tasks of aprogram or algorithm which have actions remaining to be routed, step855, the method continues, returning to step 800, and when there are nofurther tasks having actions to be routed, the method may end, returnstep 780. It should also be noted that step 850, which sets or enablesthe run status for the particular task, may also be performed followingstep 855, when all of tasks have been routed.

The run status, as discussed below, is a field utilized in theconfiguration word for a context (stored in memory 330) and utilized bythe element controller 325 to determine whether the circuit element 270should execute a selected context (i.e., perform the correspondingaction). In this case, it indicates that the task has been fullyconfigured, with all actions (or instructions) assigned and routed, suchthat it may be ready to execute, provided that other conditions are alsomet, as discussed below. The run status may also be utilized to start orstop selected tasks, or to purge a selected task, such as to load a newtask in its place.

In addition, it will be apparent to those of skill in the electronicarts that a number of variations of the methodology of FIG. 14 may beimplemented equivalently and are within the scope of the presentinvention. For example, in the event that the actions (or instructions)are not stored locally in a memory 330, or in a memory composite element260, or in second memory element 255, but are stored centrally in aseparate memory, a top-down approach may be utilized. Continuing withthe example, a top-level controller such as a matrix-level controller(designated SME 290 or controller 175) may initiate the routing process,examining the stored and linked actions (or instructions), determiningthe routing within and between the various clusters, and passing thevarious configurations (as contexts) to the affected composite circuitelements 260. As another variation, the top-level controller such as amatrix-level controller (designated SME 290 or controller 175) maysimply transmit the corresponding actions (or instructions) to theclusters 200, which then initiate the routing process as described abovewith reference to FIGS. 14C and 14D.

Also, while one or more controllers 175 may be utilized to implement theassignment and routing processes, it is also apparent that the use of adesignated SME 290 is a more robust and resilient solution. In thesecircumstances, any of the plurality of SMEs 290 (of the correspondingplurality of clusters 200) may perform the various roles of supercluster185 controller, matrix 150 controller, or apparatus 100 controller. Inthe event of harm or damage to a given SME 290, innumerable other SMEs290 are available to assume any of these roles.

Significantly, the time involved for this assignment and routing processis linear with respect to the number of actions (or instructions) “k”,and proceeds quite rapidly, as it is performed concurrently in amassively parallel process within each cluster 200. For example,depending upon the number of cluster-, supercluster- and matrix-levels“n” involved, the worst case amount of time per context (or instruction)is typically 3n+1 or 4n+1 clock or computation cycles, for messages tobe transmitted and routing to be completed to the correspondingperipheries of each level. This is in sharp contrast with prior artrouting methodologies in which the routing time, at a minimum, is afunction of k² and, if optimized, is non-deterministic and has anunpredictable routing time.

Another advantage of this assignment and binding process of the presentinvention is the ability to assign and route tasks and actions (orinstructions) to a plurality of heterogeneous clusters 200. Moreparticularly, clusters 200 are not required to be the same, and may bequite different, with different mixes of types of composite circuitelements 260, without impacting the ability to program the resultingdevice. For example, any cluster 200 with many multiplier-type compositecircuit elements 260 will simply have more availability for assignmentof multiplication operations, such that those types of actions (orinstructions) will automatically gravitate to those types of clusters200. In addition, the assignment and binding time would be the same forboth homogeneous or heterogeneous clusters 200.

As discussed above with reference to FIG. 1, in the event of damage toor failure of one or more components within a cluster 200, such as acomposite circuit element 260 or SME 290, the cluster 200 or theindividual component may be designated or marked as unavailable. Underthese circumstances, any tasks and/or actions (or instructions) assignedto an affected composite circuit element 260 should be placed with oneor more other composite circuit elements 260, and this may be performedin a wide variety of ways.

FIG. 15 is a flow diagram illustrating a first exemplary re-assignmentand re-binding process in accordance with the teachings of the presentinvention. In this first approach, starting with step 900, such as dueto a failure indication during self-testing, one or more SMEs 290 (fromwithin the same cluster 200 if unaffected by the damage or failure, orfrom another cluster 200) marks or designates the affected compositecircuit element 260 as unavailable, step 905, and directs the elementcontroller 325 of the affected composite circuit element 260 to stopexecuting all contexts, step 910, typically utilizing the run statusbit. The SME 290 would also transmit a message to the linked data sourcecomposite circuit elements 260, to direct those composite circuitelement(s) 260 to stop producing data and transferring it to theaffected composite circuit element 260, step 915. The SME 290 thendetermines which (if any) other composite circuit elements 260 areavailable to take over the affected functionality (i.e., thefunctionality which had been performed by the affected and nowunavailable composite circuit element 260), and copies the contextsstored in the memory 330 of the affected composite circuit element 260to one or more memories 330 of the available composite circuitelement(s) 260 of the same type which have available contexts, step 920.In an exemplary embodiment, the SME 290 may store and maintain atransformation table, which indicates which composite circuit elements260 have availability and have the requisite type of circuit element 270for such a transfer of functionality. The SME 290 may also copy thecontents of the associated input queues 320 to the input queues 320 ofthe available composite circuit elements 260, step 925; alternatively,for certain types of real-time data, the input data may be discarded or,equivalently, allowed to remain in the associated input queues, withoperations resuming at the available composite circuit element(s) 260using newly produced data.

The SME 290 then re-routes the connections to and from the availablecomposite circuit elements 260, step 930, such as by doing source (ordestination) task and action identifier searches as discussed above and,in addition, if both source and destination task and action identifierinformation is not stored, performing a search for the affected actions(or instructions) in other memories 330 of other composite circuitelements 260, to determine the corresponding data destinations (orsources) to complete the routing. Other routing steps as discussed abovealso may be utilized as needed (e.g., for routing between clusters 200).In step 935, the SME 290 then resets the corresponding run status bitsof the transferred contexts, to re-enable the execution of the affectedactions (or instructions) by the available composite circuit element(s)260, and the re-assignment and re-binding process may end, return step940.

In a second approach, the task may be re-assigned and re-bound (e.g., asillustrated in FIGS. 12-14) and, given the affected components are nolonger available, no actions (or instructions) will be assigned to them.This approach also has the advantage of preserving any localityconstraints, as such constraints will be included within the taskactions (or instructions). In addition, as the duration of theassignment and binding process is linear with respect to the number ofactions (or instructions), this re-assignment and re-binding processproceeds rapidly, with minimal disruption, particularly when the numberof affected actions (or instructions) is comparatively small. As part ofthis process, one of the designated SMEs 290 may also direct the elementcontroller 325 of the affected composite circuit element 260 to stopexecuting all contexts, transmit a message to the linked data sourcecomposite circuit element(s) 260 to direct the source composite circuitelement(s) 260 to stop producing data and transferring it to theaffected composite circuit element 260, copy the contents of theassociated input queues 320 to the newly assigned, available compositecircuit elements 260, and reset the run status bits for the transferredcontexts of the available composite circuit elements 260.

As a consequence, a program or algorithm that has been compiled as asymbolic netlist for the apparatus 100 has been assigned and routedwithin the apparatus 100, creating all of the composite circuit element260 configurations (stored as contexts) and data path connections (viafull interconnect element 275, distributed full interconnect element295, or interconnect 155). While the apparatus 100 has been designed toenable such assignment and routing in real time, it is not required tobe performed in real-time and may be performed in advance, with all suchassignment and routing within the scope of the present invention. Withthis background, the operation of and control of execution within theapparatus 100 may now be explained.

E. Apparatus Operation and Control of Execution

FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary configuration and controlword 1000 in accordance with the teachings of the present invention. Asillustrated in FIG. 16, the exemplary configuration word 1000 iscomprised of a plurality of data fields, and comprises at least two ormore of the following data fields, in any order: an elementconfiguration field 1010; a task ID field 1015; an action ID field 1020;a destination (and/or source) address field 1025 (designating adestination (or source) composite circuit element 260, a port, andcontext); an optional “fork” field 1030; a significant inputs (“SI”)field 1035; a significant outputs (“SO”) field 1040; an optional cycles(“CY”) field 1045; a run status field 1050; an optional priority field1055; an optional state ready field 1060; an optional next field 1065;an optional last context field 1070; an optional interrupts field 1075;an optional single-step field 1080; and an optional constant mode field1085. A corresponding configuration and control word 1000 it utilizedfor each context of the composite circuit element 260. It will beapparent to those of skill in the electronic arts that additional orfewer fields may be utilized, depending upon the applications andobjectives of the selected apparatus 100 and any incorporated system,and all such variations are within the scope of the present invention.

A plurality of configuration words, one for each context, are utilizedby the element controller 325 to control the configuration and executionof a configurable element 270. Each configuration word is indexed by thecontext number. The one or more configuration bits which control how theconfigurable element 270 is to be configured or how data is to beinterpreted is or are stored in element configuration field 1010.Similarly, the assigned and routed (bound) actions (or instructions) arestored as the corresponding task ID, in field 1015, and the action ID infield 1020.

The data output and/or data input locations, as bound destination(and/or source) addresses, are stored in field 1025. Alternatively, thedata input and/or data output pointers (as source/destination task IDsand action IDs) may be stored, depending upon the methodologyimplemented for potential re-routing. For example, when an entire taskis re-assigned and re-bound de novo, new routing information will begenerated, rather than utilizing the previously stored source anddestination information. The remaining control fields are utilized tocontrol whether and when a given context is executed (for acorresponding action to be performed by the circuit element 270), howinterrupts are serviced by the SME 290, and how output data is providedto one or more destination addresses.

The element controller 325, in exemplary embodiments, comprisescombinational logic gates or elements, such as AND, OR and INVERTERgates, which provide a result (a given context executes or does notexecute), based upon the values of the bits stored in the various fields(e.g., 1035, 1040, 1050, 1060) of the exemplary configuration andcontrol word 1000. FIG. 17 is a block diagram illustrating exemplarycombinational logic circuitry 1100 for context readiness determinationwithin an exemplary apparatus in accordance with the teachings of thepresent invention.

As mentioned above, in a data flow environment, a context (task) mayexecute when it has sufficient input data and a sufficiently free oravailable destination for the resulting output data. As there aremultiple inputs and corresponding multiple input queues 320 into theconfigurable element 270, the significant input (SI) bits (1035)designate which of those inputs are to be utilized in the selectedcontext. In addition, the input queues 320 are adapted to provide afirst signal, referred to as “enough input” (“EI”), indicating thatthere is sufficient data in the corresponding input queues 320. Forexample, in the element controller 325, each of the SI bits areinverted, and each of the inverted SI bits and its corresponding EIsignal are ORed (OR gates 1110 ₀ through 1110 _(n)), with all of theircorresponding OR results (four results for four inputs) then ANDedtogether (AND gate 1115), to provide a “data input ready” signal, suchthat the AND result (data input ready) indicates that there issufficient data available at the inputs which will be utilized by theselected context. More specifically, the data input ready signal isprovided when (1) there is enough input data at the significant inputs,and (2) any other remaining input is not significant.

Similarly, as there are multiple output queues 315 and outputs 375 fromthe configurable element 270, the significant output (SO) bits (1040)designate which of those outputs and corresponding queues are to beutilized in the selected context. In addition, a second signal referredto as a “room for more” (“RFM”) signal is provided to indicate that thecorresponding destination(s) have sufficient space available for outputdata, either from the output queues 315 or from the input queues 320 ofthe data destination, or potentially from an output register trackingoutput data consumption. Also for example, in the element controller325, the SO bits are inverted, and each of the inverted SO bits and itscorresponding RFM signal are ORed (OR gates 1120 ₀ through 1120 _(n)),with all of their corresponding OR results (two results for two outputs)then ANDed together (AND gate 1125), to provide a “data output ready”signal, such that the AND result (data output ready) indicates thatthere is sufficient memory space available for data output by theselected context, namely, space available in the corresponding outputqueues 315 (or destination input queues 320 (or other memory)). Morespecifically, the data output ready signal is provided when (1) there isroom for output data at the significant outputs, and (2) any otherremaining output is not significant.

These two results, the data input ready and data output ready then maybe ANDed together (AND gate 1130), to provide an overall data “ready”status for a selected context. For example, the ready status is equal toa logic one when both the data input(s) and data output(s) are ready,and is zero otherwise. Alternatively, as illustrated in FIG. 17, thedata input ready and data output ready results may be ANDed with otherfields (state ready and run status, discussed below), to provide anoverall indication that the context is ready for execution (a “contextready” signal).

The run status stored in field 1050 indicates whether the context hasbeen enabled for execution, and may be set following data input-outputrouting in the binding process, or set (or reset) at other times by theSME 290. For example, the task (of which the selected context is a part)may still be in the process of being configured and routed for otherconfigurable elements 270, and should not be enabled until such routingis complete. In other circumstances, one of the SMEs 290 may have halteda task, for possible resumption at another time, or may be in theprocess of deleting tasks. As a consequence, the element controller 325will execute a context only when enabled, as indicated by the run statusin field 1050.

The SME 290 may also utilize one or more state ready bits (stored inoptional field 1060) to control context execution based on variousconditions or other events. For example, when a condition has been met,such as an initialization, a selected context may need to be run next,and is designated with the state ready bits. All of these bits (runstatus, state ready, data output ready signal, data input ready signal)may be ANDed (AND gate 1130), and the result may also be stored withinthe run status field 1050 or another field accessible by the elementcontroller 325. As a consequence, the conjunction of the state readybits, the data input ready, data output ready and run status indicators,provide an indication to cause the element controller 325 to allowexecution of the selected context. Alternatively, operations may becontrolled through use of the run status (of field 1050), without thestate ready bits, allowing the SME 290 to simply designate whether thecontext is or is not enabled for execution.

The optional cycles field 1045 is utilized to designate the number ofclock cycles required to execute the corresponding action. This field isutilized to avoid another, second context being executed whilecomputations of a first context are still in progress.

The optional single-step field 1080 is utilized to provide for a contextto execute just once, such as for results to be examined by the SME 290.Various testing contexts are often run in a single-step mode, with theSME 290 setting or clearing a single-step bit (e.g., for a test to berun at selected times, and to not be always available to run).

In a selected embodiment, the optional context field 1070 may beutilized as part of arbitration among potential execution of a pluralityof contexts. When a context has been executed, the last context bit isset (and the last context bits of the other contexts are reset to zero).In the event of competing contexts which are ready for execution, thelast context bit is utilized to determine if one of the contexts justexecuted, and if so, allows the other context to execute, to avoid onecontext from completely dominating execution in the configurable element270. In addition, in the event of competing contexts which did not justexecute, one or more optional priority bits (stored in field 1055) maybe utilized to arbitrate and allow the higher priority context toexecute first.

In an exemplary embodiment, the optional next indicator (stored in field1065), also referred to as a “chain” indicator, is utilized to determinethe next context to execute, and is particularly useful for controllingthe sequence in which contexts are executed, i.e., chaining together asequence of operations. In this embodiment, the element controller 325can commence execution of the “chain lead” context (the first context ofthe chain, also as designated within field 1065), when the otherconditions discussed above have been met. Thereafter, the elementcontroller 325 will execute the next context in the sequence, asdesignated in the field 1065, also when the other conditions (e.g., EI,RFM, etc.) have been met, and otherwise will wait for the next contextto become available. If the next context is the same as the currentcontext, then execution of the sequence has been completed. This field1065 may also include a designation as to whether the data input(s) willbe consumed.

In another exemplary embodiment, when destination-based (rather thansource-based) data transmission is utilized, the optional “fork” field1030 is utilized for output replication, when the same output is to beprovided (or replicated) to multiple destinations. Additional contextsare utilized to store these additional destinations. In this embodiment,the element controller 325 can commence execution of the “fork lead”context (the first context of the fork, also as designated within field1030), when the other conditions discussed above have been met.Thereafter, when the one or more bits of the fork field 1030 indicateanother context, the current output will be provided (copiedsequentially) as the output for that context, avoiding a need tore-execute a context based on the same data to provide the same output,just to a different location. Other contexts which are not part of the“fork” sequence are not executed during this sequential outputreplication. If the next context is the same as the current context,then execution of the forking (output duplication) has been completed.When no fork is indicated in field 1030, the element controller 325simply determines what other contexts may be ready for execution, andproceeds accordingly.

In a selected embodiment, an optional “interrupts” field 1075 may alsobe provided. This field may designate, as part of the configuration word1000, the setting, masking, and detecting of interrupts, including whena context executes. These interrupts are serviced by the SME 290.

Also in a selected embodiment, an optional constant mode field 1085 maybe utilized, to designate that one or more of the input data words is aconstant. For such a constant, it is generally maintained (untilchanged), so the constant is not consumed during data operations. Inthis embodiment, selected bits of the constant mode field 1085 are alsoutilized to indicate the next data read location (e.g., which data wordin a two word input queue 320), such as for toggling or switchingbetween two or more constant values.

As a consequence, as discussed above, the element controller 325 may beimplemented using a plurality of combinational logic gates, whichevaluate the various fields of the configuration and control word 1000(and other control signals) for each context. When the various fieldsand other signal indicate that a context is both ready and should berun, the element controller 325 loads the configuration of the context,and the corresponding task or action (or instruction) is executed.

In summary, the present invention provides resilient and adaptiveintegrated circuitry with self-healing capabilities. Numerous advantagesof the exemplary embodiments are readily apparent. The IC architectureof the present invention is resilient, providing adaptation formanufacturing defects, flaws which may arise during usage of the IC, andadaptability for new features, services, algorithms, and other events.This IC architecture is self-healing, because in the event a portion ofthe IC is damaged or otherwise becomes unusable, another portion of theIC is effectively “recruited” or reassigned to take over and perform thefunctions of the damaged portion. The present invention allows a singlecomponent to be switched out, and does not have the fixed wiring of theprior art. In addition, as the functions are reassigned, new control anddata pathways are also created, so that the transferred operationscontinue to perform seamlessly with other IC operations. Such adaptiveresilience and self-healing may occur in real-time or near real-time,depending upon the selected embodiment. Such resiliency provides for agraceful degradation of performance in the event of damage to the IC,rather than a catastrophic failure, and is especially significant inhealth and safety applications.

It is to be understood that this application discloses a system,apparatus, software and method for resilient and adaptive integratedcircuitry with self-healing capabilities. Although the invention hasbeen described with respect to specific embodiments thereof, theseembodiments are merely illustrative and not restrictive of theinvention. In the description herein, numerous specific details areprovided, such as examples of electronic components, electronic andstructural connections, materials, and structural variations, to providea thorough understanding of embodiments of the present invention. Oneskilled in the relevant art will recognize, however, that an embodimentof the invention can be practiced without one or more of the specificdetails, or with other apparatus, systems, assemblies, components,materials, parts, etc. In other instances, well-known structures,materials, or operations are not specifically shown or described indetail to avoid obscuring aspects of embodiments of the presentinvention. In addition, the various Figures are not drawn to scale andshould not be regarded as limiting.

A “processor” as used herein may be any type of controller or processor,and may be embodied as one or more processors 175, adapted to performthe functionality discussed herein. The processor may be in a separatesystem, or may be integrated as part of the die of the systems 100, 140,etc., and may be any type of processor or controller, such as acommercially available processor or microprocessor, e.g., ARM orMicro-Blaze, or may be implemented using one or more SMEs 290. As theterm processor is used herein, a processor may include use of a singleintegrated circuit (“IC”), or may include use of a plurality ofintegrated circuits or other components connected, arranged or groupedtogether, such as controllers, microprocessors, digital signalprocessors (“DSPs”), parallel processors, multiple core processors,custom ICs, application specific integrated circuits (“ASICs”), fieldprogrammable gate arrays (“FPGAs”), adaptive computing ICs, associatedmemory (such as RAM, DRAM and ROM), and other ICs and components. As aconsequence, as used herein, the term processor should be understood toequivalently mean and include a single IC, or arrangement of custom ICs,ASICs, processors, microprocessors, controllers, FPGAs, adaptivecomputing ICs, or some other grouping of integrated circuits whichperform the functions discussed below, with associated memory, such asmicroprocessor memory or additional RAM, DRAM, SDRAM, SRAM, MRAM, ROM,FLASH, EPROM or E²PROM. A processor (such as processor 1215), with itsassociated memory, may be adapted or configured (via programming, FPGAinterconnection, or hard-wiring) to perform the methodologies of theinvention. For example, the methodology may be programmed and stored, ina processor/controller 175 with its associated memory (and/or othermemory) and other equivalent components, as a set of programinstructions or other code (or equivalent configuration or otherprogram) for subsequent execution when the processor is operative (i.e.,powered on and functioning). Equivalently, when the processor 1215 mayimplemented in whole or part as FPGAs, custom ICs and/or ASICs, theFPGAs, custom ICs or ASICs also may be designed, configured and/orhard-wired to implement the methodology of the invention. For example,the processor may be implemented as an arrangement of processors,controllers, microprocessors, DSPs and/or ASICs, collectively referredto as a “controller” or “processor”, which are respectively programmed,designed, adapted or configured to implement the methodology of theinvention, in conjunction with a memory.

“Memory”, as used herein, which may include a data repository (ordatabase), may be embodied in any number of forms, including within anycomputer or other machine-readable data storage medium, memory device orother storage or communication device for storage or communication ofinformation, currently known or which becomes available in the future,including, but not limited to, a memory integrated circuit (“IC”), ormemory portion of an integrated circuit (such as the resident memorywithin a processor), whether volatile or non-volatile, whether removableor non-removable, including without limitation RAM, FLASH, DRAM, SDRAM,SRAM, MRAM, FeRAM, ROM, EPROM or E²PROM, or any other form of memorydevice, such as a magnetic hard drive, an optical drive, a magnetic diskor tape drive, a hard disk drive, other machine-readable storage ormemory media such as a floppy disk, a CDROM, a CD-RW, digital versatiledisk (DVD) or other optical memory, or any other type of memory, storagemedium, or data storage apparatus or circuit, which is known or whichbecomes known, depending upon the selected embodiment. In addition, suchcomputer readable media includes any form of communication media whichembodies computer readable instructions, data structures, programmodules or other data in a data signal or modulated signal, such as anelectromagnetic or optical carrier wave or other transport mechanism,including any information delivery media, which may encode data or otherinformation in a signal, wired or wirelessly, including electromagnetic,optical, acoustic, RF or infrared signals, and so on. The memory may beadapted to store various look up tables, parameters, coefficients, otherinformation and data, programs or instructions (of the software of thepresent invention), and other types of tables such as database tables.

As indicated above, the processor/controller 175 is programmed, usingsoftware and data structures of the invention, for example, to performthe compilation methodology of the present invention. As a consequence,the system and method of the present invention may be embodied assoftware which provides such programming or other instructions, such asa set of instructions and/or metadata embodied within a computerreadable medium. In addition, metadata may also be utilized to definethe various data structures of a look up table or a database. Suchsoftware may be in the form of source or object code, by way of exampleand without limitation. Source code further may be compiled into someform of instructions or object code (including assembly languageinstructions or configuration information). The software, source code ormetadata of the present invention may be embodied as any type of code,such as C, C++, SystemC, LISA, XML, Java, Brew, SQL and its variations(e.g., SQL 99 or proprietary versions of SQL), DB2, Oracle, or any othertype of programming language which performs the functionality discussedherein, including various hardware definition or hardware modelinglanguages (e.g., Verilog, VHDL, RTL) and resulting database files (e.g.,GDSII). As a consequence, a “construct”, “program construct”, “softwareconstruct” or “software”, as used equivalently herein, means and refersto any programming language, of any kind, with any syntax or signatures,which provides or can be interpreted to provide the associatedfunctionality or methodology specified (when instantiated or loaded intoa processor or computer and executed, including the processor 1215, forexample).

The software, metadata, or other source code of the present inventionand any resulting bit file (object code, database, or look up table) maybe embodied within any tangible storage medium, such as any of thecomputer or other machine-readable data storage media, ascomputer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules orother data, such as discussed above with respect to the memory 1220,e.g., a floppy disk, a CDROM, a CD-RW, a DVD, a magnetic hard drive, anoptical drive, or any other type of data storage apparatus or medium, asmentioned above.

Any I/O interfaces may be implemented as known or may become known inthe art, and may include impedance matching capability, voltagetranslation for a low voltage processor to interface with a highervoltage control bus, and various switching mechanisms (e.g.,transistors) to turn various lines or connectors on or off in responseto signaling from the processor. In addition, the I/O interface may alsobe adapted to receive and/or transmit signals externally to the system,such as through hard-wiring, IR or RF signaling, for example, to receiveinformation such as algorithms for compiling, for example. The I/Ointerface may provide connection to any type of bus or network structureor medium, using any selected architecture. By way of example and notlimitation, such architectures include Industry Standard Architecture(ISA) bus, Enhanced ISA (EISA) bus, Micro Channel Architecture (MCA)bus, Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, SAN bus, or any othercommunication or signaling medium, such as Ethernet, ISDN, T1,satellite, wireless, and so on. The I/O interface may be implemented asknown or may become known in the art, to provide data communicationbetween the processor and the network, using any applicable standard(e.g., one of the various PCI, USB or Ethernet standards, for exampleand without limitation).

Reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment”, “anembodiment”, or a specific “embodiment” means that a particular feature,structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodimentis included in at least one embodiment of the present invention and notnecessarily in all embodiments, and further, are not necessarilyreferring to the same embodiment. Furthermore, the particular features,structures, or characteristics of any specific embodiment of the presentinvention may be combined in any suitable manner and in any suitablecombination with one or more other embodiments, including the use ofselected features without corresponding use of other features. Inaddition, many modifications may be made to adapt a particularapplication, situation or material to the essential scope and spirit ofthe present invention. It is to be understood that other variations andmodifications of the embodiments of the present invention described andillustrated herein are possible in light of the teachings herein and areto be considered part of the spirit and scope of the present invention.

It will also be appreciated that one or more of the elements depicted inthe Figures can also be implemented in a more separate or integratedmanner, or even removed or rendered inoperable in certain cases, as maybe useful in accordance with a particular application. Integrally formedcombinations of components are also within the scope of the invention,particularly for embodiments in which a separation or combination ofdiscrete components is unclear or indiscernible. In addition, use of theterm “coupled” herein, including in its various forms such as “coupling”or “couplable”, means and includes any direct or indirect electrical,structural or magnetic coupling, connection or attachment, or adaptationor capability for such a direct or indirect electrical, structural ormagnetic coupling, connection or attachment, including integrally formedcomponents and components which are coupled via or through anothercomponent.

Furthermore, any signal arrows in the drawings/Figures should beconsidered only exemplary, and not limiting, unless otherwisespecifically noted. Combinations of components of steps will also beconsidered within the scope of the present invention, particularly wherethe ability to separate or combine is unclear or foreseeable. Thedisjunctive term “or”, as used herein and throughout the claims thatfollow, is generally intended to mean “and/or”, having both conjunctiveand disjunctive meanings (and is not confined to an “exclusive or”meaning), unless otherwise indicated. As used in the description hereinand throughout the claims that follow, “a”, “an”, and “the” includeplural references unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Also asused in the description herein and throughout the claims that follow,the meaning of “in” includes “in” and “on” unless the context clearlydictates otherwise.

The foregoing description of illustrated embodiments of the presentinvention, including what is described in the summary or in theabstract, is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention tothe precise forms disclosed herein. From the foregoing, it will beobserved that numerous variations and modifications may be effectedwithout departing from the spirit and scope of the novel concept of theinvention. It is to be understood that no limitation with respect to thespecific methods and apparatus illustrated herein is intended or shouldbe inferred. It is, of course, intended to cover by the appended claimsall such modifications as fall within the scope of the claims.

1. An apparatus comprising: a communication element; a plurality ofcomposite circuit elements coupled to the communication element, eachcomposite circuit element comprising a uniform element interface and aconfigurable circuit element of a plurality of circuit element types, afirst composite circuit element of the plurality of composite circuitelements configurable for a first action, a second composite circuitelement of the plurality of composite circuit elements configurable fora second action, a third composite circuit element of the plurality ofcomposite circuit elements configurable for the first action, whereinthe second composite circuit element has a configurable or programmablefirst data link to the first composite circuit element for performanceof a first function or has a configurable or programmable second datalink to the third composite circuit element for performance of the firstfunction; and and wherein each uniform element interface comprises: afirst memory coupled to the corresponding circuit element, the firstmemory to store at least one configuration of the corresponding circuitelement; a second memory coupled to the corresponding circuit element,the second memory comprising a plurality of input queues for data inputto the corresponding circuit element; and an element controller coupledto the corresponding circuit element, the element controller to controlexecution by the corresponding circuit element upon arrival of data inat least one input queue of the plurality of input queues.
 2. Theapparatus of claim 1, further comprising: a state machine elementcoupled to the plurality of communication elements or to the pluralityof composite circuit elements, the state machine element, in response toan unavailability of the first composite circuit element, to enable aconfiguration of the third composite circuit element for the firstaction and to configure or program the second data link between thesecond composite circuit element and the third composite circuitelement.
 3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first memory furtheris to store a plurality of contexts, each context of the plurality ofcontexts specifying a selected configuration of a plurality ofconfigurations of the corresponding circuit element, and either or bothone or more data input sources or one or more data output destinations.4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the uniform element interfacefurther comprises: a third memory coupled to the circuit element, thethird memory comprising a plurality of output queues for data outputfrom the circuit element.
 5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein thecommunication element comprises: a corresponding element interface; anda corresponding communication circuit element.
 6. The apparatus of claim1, wherein the communication element is both to route at least one firstdata word and to switch at least one second data word.
 7. The apparatusof claim 1, wherein the communication element comprises an interclusterqueue to transfer a data word between adjacent pluralities of compositecircuit elements.
 8. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising aplurality of communication elements, wherein the plurality ofcommunication elements further comprise: an intercluster queue to buffera data word from a first array of the plurality of composite circuitelements and to transfer the data word to an adjacent second array ofthe plurality of composite circuit elements; and a full interconnectelement coupled to the first plurality of composite circuit elements andto the intercluster queue, the full interconnect element to couple anyoutput of a composite circuit element of the first array of theplurality of composite circuit elements to any input of anothercomposite circuit element of the first array of the plurality ofcomposite circuit elements or to the intercluster queue.
 9. Theapparatus of claim 1, wherein the plurality of communication elementsfurther comprise: a message manager circuit to route at least one firstdata word and to switch at least one second data word.
 10. The apparatusof claim 1, wherein the communication element is to route or switch atleast one data word between a first array of the plurality of compositecircuit elements and a second array of the plurality of compositecircuit elements.
 11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein thecommunication element is to buffer at least one data word from a firstarray of the plurality of composite circuit elements and to transfer theat least one data word to an adjacent second array of the plurality ofcomposite circuit elements.
 12. The apparatus of claim 1, furthercomprising: a message manager circuit to provide a communicationinterface to an external bus or an external memory.
 13. An apparatuscomprising: a state machine element comprising a processor; aninterconnect element; an intercluster queue coupled to the interconnectelement, the intercluster queue to buffer a data word from a firstplurality of composite circuit elements and to transfer the data word toan adjacent second plurality of composite circuit elements; and thefirst plurality of composite circuit elements coupled to theinterconnect element, each composite circuit element comprising anelement interface and a configurable circuit element of a plurality ofconfigurable circuit element types, a first composite circuit element ofthe first plurality of composite circuit elements configurable for afirst action, a second composite circuit element of the first pluralityof composite circuit elements configurable for a second action, thefirst composite circuit element having a configurable or programmablefirst data link to the second composite circuit element through theinterconnect element; and wherein each uniform element interfacecomprises: a first memory coupled to the corresponding circuit element,the first memory to store at least one configuration of thecorresponding circuit element; a second memory coupled to thecorresponding circuit element, the second memory comprising a pluralityof input queues for data input to the corresponding circuit element; athird memory coupled to the corresponding circuit element, the thirdmemory comprising a plurality of output queues for data output from thecorresponding circuit element; and an element controller coupled to thecorresponding circuit element, the element controller to control dataflow execution by the corresponding circuit element upon arrival of datain at least one input queue of the plurality of input queues.
 14. Theapparatus of claim 13, further comprising: a communication elementcoupled to the interconnect element, the communication element both toroute at least one first data word and to switch at least one seconddata word.
 15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the interconnectelement is to couple any output queue of the plurality of output queuescoupled to a composite circuit element of the first plurality ofcomposite circuit elements to any input queue of the plurality of inputqueues coupled to another composite circuit element of the firstplurality of composite circuit elements or to the intercluster queue.16. An apparatus comprising: a plurality of circuit arrays, each circuitarray of the plurality of circuit arrays comprising: an interconnectelement; a plurality of communication elements coupled to theinterconnect element, the plurality of communication elements totransfer data from a first circuit array to an adjacent second circuitarray of the plurality of circuit arrays; a plurality of compositecircuit elements coupled to the interconnect element, each compositecircuit element comprising an element interface and a configurablecircuit element of a plurality of configurable circuit element types, afirst composite circuit element of the plurality of composite circuitelements configurable for a first action, a second composite circuitelement of the plurality of composite circuit elements configurable fora second action, the first composite circuit element having a configuredor programmed first data link to the second composite circuit elementthrough the interconnect element; and wherein each element interfacecomprises: a first memory coupled to the corresponding circuit element,the first memory to store at least one configuration of thecorresponding circuit element; a second memory coupled to thecorresponding circuit element, the second memory comprising a pluralityof input queues for data input to the corresponding circuit element; andan element controller coupled to the corresponding circuit element, theelement controller to control execution by the corresponding circuitelement upon arrival of data in at least one input queue of theplurality of input queues.
 17. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein theelement controller further is to store in the first memory a currentstate of a partial execution of a first context of a plurality ofcontexts, to direct execution of a second context of the plurality ofcontexts by the corresponding circuit element, and retrieve the currentstate and direct resumption of execution of the first context by thecorresponding circuit element.
 18. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein theelement controller is, for a selected context of the plurality ofcontexts, to direct an execution of the selected context by thecorresponding circuit element when a selected input queue correspondingto the selected context has input data, when a status bit correspondingto the selected context is set for execution, and when a selected outputqueue corresponding to the selected context has room to accept data. 19.The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the first memory further is to storea plurality of contexts, each context of the plurality of contextsspecifying a selected configuration of a plurality of configurations ofthe corresponding circuit element, and either or both one or more datainput sources or one or more data output destinations.
 20. The apparatusof claim 19, wherein the element controller is, for a selected contextof the plurality of contexts, to direct an execution of the selectedcontext by the corresponding circuit element when a selected input queuecorresponding to the selected context has input data, when a status bitcorresponding to the selected context is set for execution, and when aselected output queue corresponding to the selected context has room toaccept data.